Pretty Ore
by Celianna
Summary: Graire. "I'll take my jacket off when I get hot, which would be never," said Gray. "Oh, so I'll never get to see what's under there?" Asked Claire innocently. Welcome to the world where Claire always seemed to put him and herself in awkward situations.
1. Pretty Ore

**Pretty Ore**

**Summary:** Graire. "I'll take my jacket off when I get hot, which would be never," said Gray. "Oh, so I'll never get to see what's under there?" Asked Claire innocently. Welcome to the world where Claire always seemed to put him and herself in awkward situations.

**Author:** BabyPan

**A/N:** This story was written in 2008, back then I had no idea you shouldn't capitalize the first word in a dialogue tag, so I apologize for getting this simple rule wrong throughout the entire story. I also apologize for having two people speak in the same paragraph, which might confuse some people. I also did not know that blonde is female, and blond is male, so I apologize for using only the 'blonde' version. There's some parts I don't like, some parts that make me cringe, but all in all, it's not a bad story and you'll probably entertain yourself throughout.

If my grammar was really bad in one place, please do point this out to me. Don't just say 'your grammar is bad', point out the actual sentence I used, so I can see my mistake and fix it, okay?

One last thing, search for 'Pretty Ore' on YouTube and you'll find 10 videos (each representing a chapter of this story) that are fanimations created by me. You'll probably like it, so it's worth checking it out. I stopped after chapter 10 though, so finish the story first before you start the fanimations.

Okay, I'm done now, enjoy your reading.

**Chapter 1 – Pretty Ore**

There was a shattering sound as something fell onto the ground, breaking into a thousands of pieces. It was followed by a thick silence. The blonde boy grimaced and prepared himself to be scolded on by his grandfather. The old man looked at his grandson with furious eyes, as if he had fire burning in them.

"How many times have I told you to be careful!" Bellowed his grandpa while he swung dangerously around with a large hammer. Gray tried to hide his face underneath his large cap and sunk to his knees to scramble up the rest of what was left from his necklace that he was making earlier. He carefully picked up a large piece which he could still use and stuffed it into his pocket, all the while trying to ignore the old guy swinging his hammer around like a madman.

"If you keep going like this, you'll never do good!" Saibara complained again, frowning with his white eyebrows.

Gray quickly stood up and scowled, he was fed up with his gramps! "All you ever say is that my work sucks and that I need to give up! There was nothing wrong with the necklace before it shattered," the blonde boy fired back as his blue eyes sparked courageously.

Saibara scoffed at him before he returned behind the counter. "Of course there was something wrong with it. Now clean up and get back to work," the old man ordered him. Gray just glared at him from beneath his cap as he picked up the remaining pieces before throwing them into the garbage.

He would be glad to go to the library and spend his time reading stories. Then he would pretend to be one of the main characters to escape his worth-for-nothing life. Gray sighed and stared at the boiler with his blue eyes, trying to get a hold of himself. It's not like he didn't like his 'apprentice' work. It's just that he wanted to get it over with and start making things already. Alas, his grandfather was always criticizing everything he did, never saying something good. So, the library was his escape from the clutches of his evil grandfather.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang; indicating that there was a customer and startling Gray out of his thoughts. Gray didn't give it much attention as he started working on creating a new necklace. He just had to prove himself to his grandfather. This was going to be one necklace that he'll never forget! Lost in his thoughts, Gray gathered some glass and started working, determined to get it right.

"Hello. Are you new here?" He could hear his grandfather say. Gray turned his head, but his view was blocked by the rather chubby Saibara. He should really lose some weight sometime. It would help.

"Yes, I'm the new owner of the farm that I was put up with." He heard a female voice say with. "My name's Claire."

In the back of Gray's mind, bells were ringing. He could faintly remember the gossip about a girl, renovating the old and forgotten farm. As far as he could tell, the Mayor had set her up, tricking her into buying a farm that would be best to tear it down. The blonde let out a tired sigh when the necklace broke again. Gray quickly hid the shattered pieces into his hand, not wanting to get scolded again.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Saibara, the blacksmith. Did you come to buy anything?" He heard the old man ask.

"Well, actually, I thought you could buy something _from_ me," the female voice once again spoke.

Gray grew very irritated and wished for the unknown Claire to be gone. He wanted to concentrate and make things better than his grandfather, this girl was not helping him with her sarcasm. The boy stood there, with his hands clutching the end of the table, while his back was turned from all the action. His blue eyes scanned the shattered pieces of glass on his worktable, which made him sigh again.

Behind his back, he heard that the girl had put something on the counter for his grandfather. "Oho, I see, I see." Gray's head cocked a bit to the side, wondering what had surprised Saibara. The pieces of glass were still on the table, staring at Gray – mocking him.

There was a long silence. His grandfather was probably studying the 'something', finding faults and then criticize it to the point there's nothing left to criticize. "Okay, enough examining – it's real. Will you buy it?" the female voice said impatiently and Gray was becoming more and more curious exactly what they were talking about, but still refused to turn around to look.

His grandfather grunted. "Normally, my grandson does these things – but he always messes things up. Would you be interested in delivering this to me every day?"

Gray's eyes widened and he turned around furiously, his index finger pointing at the back of Saibara. "What!" he yelled out incredulously, not believing his grandfather just told a perfectly stranger that he 'messes up'. Which wasn't even true! Even though he didn't know what his grandfather was actually talking about.

Saibara glanced at Gray before looking at the blonde girl before him again. "Don't mind him, so what do you think?"

Gray, now more frustrated then ever because he was also being ignored, walked up in front of the counter – shoved the girl away from his sight and slammed his fist onto the desk. He didn't even noticed his fist slamming into a copper ore, getting cuts in his hand, but barely noticed.

"Why do you always link every conversation to me! It's like; It's raining today. My grandson messes everything up when it's raining. I'm getting sick of it!" Gray said, insulted and feeling very, very angry, and still not noticing he was starting to bleed. His grandfather just stared at him, not really wanting to answer because he thought this was probably very uninteresting.

Without much further thought, Gray pushed past the girl that had been keeping herself quiet behind him and stormed out of the Blacksmith. The blonde quickly ran all the way to Rose Square and stood there in front of the Bulletin Board. He leaned against the board with his hand, his eyes were closed because he had so much rage in them. Still, he did not notice the blood on his right hand.

He had never felt this angry before. Why did his grandfather always had to put him down in front of everyone? Why couldn't he be happy with something he made for once? Why did he feel like crap whenever his grandfather insulted him? Gray let out a frustrated growl and punched the Bulletin Board. Finally, he saw the blood on his hand. It wasn't much, and it didn't hurt. Gray then noticed he was still holding the shattered pieces of the second necklace he was making.

His blue eyes looked at the pieces with disgust as he carelessly threw them onto the ground.

"You shouldn't litter the place like that," a voice said behind him. He recognized it as the one from the Blacksmith – probably the girl that he had shoved out of his way when he was angry. Gray scolded himself for acting so rough on someone he didn't even know. The young man calmed down a little bit from his rage and felt bad for involving an innocent girl. The blonde turned around, ready to apologize .. in his own special way.

He looked down at the ground, hiding underneath his big cap and gave one little glance at the person in front of him.

"I'm sorry I pushed you earlier," Gray said in a low voice, barely audible.

The blonde and short girl, clad in a blue jumpsuit, merely shifted her feet; as if she didn't really care. "You're the new one, right? The one from the farm?" Gray asked, now looking up into her own blue eyes. She looked back at him into his eyes. He couldn't tell what filled her eyes, but it seemed as if she was lost.

The girl just stared at him for a moment but then nodded. "Yes I am.." said the girl.

There was an uncomfortable silence and neither said something. Gray placed back on his guard and looked at the girl from underneath his cap. "The name's Gray," he nodded his head to her. The blonde haired girl – whom he had not so surprisingly forgotten the name of, looked at him with a smile.

"Claire."

Before this conversation could turn into one of those dreaded silences, Gray quickly tapped his cap and got ready to leave. "It's nice to meet you, but I have to go back to work now. See ya." And with that, the young man left behind a new stranger.

It started to rain, the glass pieces on the ground started to float away in the drain. The blonde haired girl stood there, watching the pieces disappear one by one.


	2. Mining Badly

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** I hope I'm doing good, and that people won't hate my version of Claire. It's always hard to give someone a personality when you know nothing about them. So I try to make her match with Gray. Because I know how much I hate the cheery-random-Claire that most authors write about.

Oh, just so you know, this story is written in Gray's point of view. Well you must have figured that one out on your own already. I lowered the rating to 'T' because the sexual themes won't kick in until later.

**Chapter 2 – **_**Mining Badly**_

--

After a couple of days, the girl named Claire had suddenly managed to get a good wager with his gramps. She would get here, 10 AM in the morning, to deliver them ores so they could use them to forge stuff. Normally, Gray himself would have to go to the mine and get the ores, but now, the new farm girl seemed to have taken this task upon herself. This fact was in itself, very weird, seeing as he was the one to do it normally.

One side of him wanted to complain; someone is making him feel useless around here.

One side of him wanted to cheer; no more pain in the back.

All in all, the girl arrived here 10 AM, sharp. She usually delivered copper ores, but sometimes she would bring back a Silver one, Gray knew those were hard to find. He often mused on the thought that he was the only one who knew the exact spots where to find the silver ores – he had to have at least _one _thing to brag about before the girl took away all his pride. Well, at least he also knew where to get golden ores .. even mystrile!

They didn't really talk after they first met, it was usually a greeting and Gray himself would just nod, tipping his cap towards her. Claire would give the ores to his gramps, get the money and disappear again.

Today was a little different.

The fact that he went up to the mines made his day a little different than any other boring day he had. Ever since Claire arrived, Gray had been slacking off on getting to the mine to get the ores himself. Today, he felt the need to pound his hammer endlessly on an innocent rock after he had to endure a full hour of scolding, yelling and criticizing of his gramps.

As he was working on smashing the rock into tiny little bits, Gray wondered how the farmer girl had any time left to tend to her farm. It has been a couple of weeks since she had arrived here, and he was pretty sure that she would fail and move out of town. Though, she proved him otherwise. She was a hard worker.

Gray took a big swing with his hammer, and crushed a big rock. It cracked in half, revealing silver on the inside. This brought a smile to his face, getting at least one thing right. Behind him he heard a sound, but thought nothing of it, assuming it was an echo. He pounded his hammer on the rock some more, making the little pieces of silver fall out. Putting the hammer on the soft ground, he gathered the silver off the dirt and placed it inside his backpack.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps, which made him turn his head around alarmingly. For a split second, he saw a girl's face with blonde hair disappear into darkness again. Gray lifted up his old fashioned lantern to see who it was; there was no one there. He could have sworn he saw the farmer girl.

Not that he really cared. So he picked up his hammer, swung it over his shoulder, and started walking out of the cave. Surprisingly he was met by a girl at the entrance.

"Hi," said Claire shyly as Gray walked out of the cave. She was standing there, with a silver hammer of her own, looking at the ground. Gray lifted up his eyebrows, but you couldn't really see it from under his cap.

"Mornin'," responded Gray, wondering why she was here. Was she the one he saw in the cave? Probably, who else around here has blonde hair .. besides him. He stepped a little closer to the shorter girl.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, I came here to mine. Then I saw you and thought you were a coyote or something," said Claire rather shyly. Her blue eyes looked up into Gray's own blue eyes. Gray's expression changed coldly. She thought _he_ was a coyote? Oh_ totally_, because coyotes can smash rocks into pieces with a hammer. Was she on drugs or something?

"It's okay," he decided to answer, and started to leave. Claire watched him pass her by – the girl didn't have much of an expression just like Gray. Within the silence, Gray had disappeared from the cave and the hot springs. The blonde haired girl watched his frame disappear around the corner, and walked into the cave.

After a few minutes, Gray's head popped around the corner, peeking to see if anyone was there. Then he stepped out and hastily walked towards the cave. What he was doing, he didn't know, but he just had to see how good this girl was at mining before he lost what was left of his pride.

He quietly entered the cave, and saw a light source burning not far from here. He hid behind a big rock, and leered at the light source. The blond haired girl was standing there, pounding her silver hammer on the rock he pounded on not too long ago. Her tiny arms had trouble raising the heavy hammer, and her blows weren't that powerful because she was kind of weak.

Gray suddenly felt a lot better. So even if this girl was taking in his jobs, he could still do a better job than her, and that's all he needed to know.

What made him keep watching though, was the fact he was fascinated by the girl's determination, something which Gray lacks. His blue eyes watched her every movement .. and in the back of his mind, he knew he was displaying stalker-ish signs. For the moment, he didn't care, because .. when he saw her, it made him want to do better. Even if she wasn't as good as him, it seemed she sure as hell tried to be. This made him think of his gramps, he was a great black smith, but Gray was as bad as Claire was in mining.

The girl whipped off some sweat of her forehead, and pulled her hair into a ponytail before she resumed her work. Gray blinked with his blue eyes, why was he still here?

_Shit, I'm really looking like a stalker right now_. Gray sat down with his back against the big rock and threw his head back to hurt himself on purpose. _Stupid._

He shuffled on his spot before he stood up to leave.

Not before something solid made contact with his head. Gray doubled over and landed face-down on the dirty ground. He spit out some sand and felt the back of his head throb in pain. The blonde groaned in pain and pushed himself off the ground.

He whirled around to come face to face with two confused blue eyes.

"G-Gray?" The blonde girl stammered out, shining her flashlight closer to his face, to see if it was really him.

Oh damn, now he was caught and it would look like he was stalking her._ Great._

"Oh I'm so sorry!" She shrieked, her hand was clutching her chest where her heart was. "I heard some noises, so I thought a coyote was entering the cave! I had no idea it was you .. I'm so sorry I threw a rock at you!" Claire kept apologizing for her behavior.

Gray's hand felt around at the back of his head, where a big bump was forming now. It also hurt, like, a lot. He didn't even notice that he wasn't wearing his cap anymore.

His mind wasn't working properly, so he said; "Do I look like a coyote to you?" Which raised another question, _are _there even coyotes in this area? Gray couldn't think for long because the bump on his head started to give him a headache.

Whatever or however he said it, it made Claire laugh at him. Her laugh was so annoyingly painful because of his headache. Gray's eyes closed as he held the back of his head with his hands.

"Please .. stop laughing," he said and winced at the echoes of her warm laugh. Claire stopped at once.

"Are you okay? You might have gotten a concussion .. oh I feel so bad right now."

He felt the bump on his head again. "I'm fine, my cap cushioned most of the blow," Gray answered, looking around for his cap, and not believing this girl threw a rock at his head. Claire tugged his sleeve while he looked around. He turned to look at her and saw she was holding his cap in her hands.

The guy took it out of her hands and glared at her; turned around and walked out of the cave. Now to hope his headache will go away, and that she wouldn't notice he was spying on her just a moment ago.

Once again, the blonde haired girl was left alone in silence, and feeling sorry for throwing a rock at someone's head. Maybe she needed to stop watching those scary movies at night.

Gray made his way across town and awkwardly stumbled into the Inn where he was staying at. He had a major headache, and he didn't really feel all that well either. He went to the counter, where the orange-head Ann was working behind.

"Hello Gray! What can I get you?" She asked cheerfully, drying some of the dishes with a towel that were in front of her. Gray sat down on the barstool, and he glared at her from underneath his cap. Ann's cheery voice was even more annoying than Claire's laugh.

"Aspirin," he said curtly.

"Really? Well you do look like you had to drag yourself out of the sewer .." Ann said, rummaging around the medicine drawer to find some aspirin for the blonde. Gray didn't even care to retort back and just kept quiet – the pounding on his head was too painful.

Ann's orange haired head popped up with an; "Ah!" She handed him an aspirin and glass of water. "There you go."

Suddenly, someone sat down next to him. Gray didn't care, but hungrily took the medicine out of Ann's head. He popped it into his mouth and swallowed some water; now to wait until the effects kick in.

"Headache?" A cool voice asked. Gray's eyes followed the sound, and saw that Cliff, his only friend, was sitting next to him. Much like himself, Cliff wasn't very talkative, and very shy. It had taken them weeks just to get on a 'friendly base' with each other, because neither would say something.

"I got a rock thrown at my head – of course I have a headache," spat Gray, trying to drone out the pain. Cliff's bushy eyebrows raised up in confusion.

"What?" He asked. Gray sighed and stood up from his stool. "Never mind, I'm going to take a nap." With that, Gray once again disappeared in silence.

Slowly he walked up the stairs and found his room. He had to share this room with Cliff, and during the summer, he had to share it with another guy called Kai. Gray never really liked it he had to share his room, but anything was better than going back to his parents. The blonde shivered as he laid down on his bed, trying to take a nap.

When he was finally having a nice dream, of having his grandfather praise him for his excellent forging skills, Gray got woken.

"Gray .. there's someone waiting outside for you," said the shy voice of Cliff. Gray cracked an eye open to look at his friend. "Wuh ..?" He managed to say with a dry throat. Something felt very sticky on his face, but he was way too tired to care.

"Just go outside," said Cliff, as he himself went to bed. The blonde looked out of the window and saw it was nighttime. Gray pulled his eyebrows together, he was hoping he could get a nap, not sleep all day long.

He gathered all his strength together to get out of bed, and not roll over to fall asleep again. The blonde didn't even notice he fell asleep with his clothes on. He slowly walked to the door and opened it. Outside, was Claire.

"Oh hey, sorry I didn't know you were sleeping," she apologized, looking at his sleepy and tired eyes.

Gray whipped off the drool that was stuck on his cheek. "What do you want?" He snapped at her, looking at her half-blurry image. He rubbed his eyes a little and waited for her answer. The girl looked at Gray's sleepy figure. His blonde hair was all ruffled and messy, giving him the bed-head look. Claire's blue eyes looked at his head, she shuffled uneasy on her place.

"I just wanted to apologize for this morning," she said softly, looking at the ground.

"Apology accepted, now good night," said Gray while he turned around to go back into his room. Behind him, Claire was confused.

"I really am sorry!" She chipped in. Gray stopped at the door-post and turned his head back to study her. A petite girl, wearing her working clothes, the same he had seen her wear when he met her. She, in his eyes, was a hard worker and also very determined to get the job done, and yet now – she could do nothing but apologize? He blinked at her. _Pathetic._

"You say sorry too much." With that, he turned his head once again and walked inside the room, slamming the door behind him.

Claire stared at the door with her blue eyes. She directed them to the ground and muttered; "Sorry.."

--

Today was Thursday. The day to rest, because his gramps closed the blacksmith on Thursday so he could go to the top of the mountain to .. Gray had no idea why his gramps liked to go to the top of the mountain. Neither did he really care. The day had already started and Gray was up very early because he already slept half the day yesterday.

Looking at his alarm clock, he saw it was 5 AM. It was too early to go hiking already. The blonde sighed and got out of bed. No use of staying in bed when you can't even fall back asleep anyway. He was fully rested and wide awake, yet had absolutely nothing to do. The library and the blacksmith were closed.

He sighed as he got dressed, took his hammer and lantern and walked out of the Inn towards the mining cave.

Upon arriving, Gray shot a glance at the new farm before he went to the cave. With his blue eyes, he scanned the messy field that was half cleaned up. There were a couple of crops placed on the field, and he could also hear some chickens. Then suddenly, the blonde girl's head popped out of nowhere and started tending to her crops.

Gray leaned against the tree as he watched the girl water every one of her crops at 5 in the morning. Being rather bored himself, the guy kept watching how the girl worked around on her farm. After she was done with her crops, she went inside this little shack, which Gray assumed was the chicken coop. Hearing the cackling sounds of the chickens, he knew he was correct. His blue eyes stared at the door as he sunk into his own thoughts.

A year ago, Gray came to this little town and took an apprenticeship with his grandfather. Much like Claire, Gray was full of hope of becoming a good blacksmith. She reminded him of his younger self a year ago, where he tried hard to become good. Eventually he noticed he wasn't getting better, so gradually he started caring less about becoming better. His grandfather would always yell at him and criticize his work, making him feel even worse.

It was a long time ago that Gray pretty much gave up on his work. Although, anything was better than going back to the city to live with his parents.

Claire walked out of the chicken coop while Gray was thinking about his past. She hummed a song he didn't know and walked back to her house.

When he looked at her, he saw the spark he himself had a year ago. To want to become better, to want to work hard. Gray sighed as he added the last part: to want to prove yourself. Looking at her, he realized he was a big fat failure of a blacksmith. The blonde sighed once more and pushed himself off the tree. Slowly he started walking towards the cave, where he was planning on mining again.

The young man entered the cave and kept going in deeper, wanting to find a nice and quiet spot for himself. He turned on his lantern (he should really buy a flashlight), placed it on the ground and took the hammer in his hands. Just like yesterday, he started hammering on a rock. His mind was empty while he did it. It was a good way of relieving his stress, just smashing something to little bits.

Gray stopped when he saw the rock split in half. Inside was shining dirty gold. He smiled a little at himself, finding the gold so fast already. The gold in this cave wasn't worth much as the golden jewelry you'd find at stores. This gold was mixed with other impure things and mostly dirt and rock. This if why no one ever knew of this place to mine, so this town would stay just like that; a town.

"Oh hey, you're here again?" Said a female voice behind him. Gray turned around to see – it was Claire. He inspected her silver hammer, as she inspected his hammer. They both came to their own conclusions.

She clutched the hammer in her tiny hands. "Am I not needed to mine ores anymore?" She said with a hint of sadness. Gray looked at her and wondered how she could do everything so fast. He felt rather jealous of her hard work.

"I'm just mining for fun," he lied. He had nothing else to do, plus this was a way to relieve stress out of him. There was a long stretched silence were both of them just stared at each other. It made Gray nervous, so he lowered his head a little to hide his eyes underneath his cap.

Claire stepped forwards, dragging the big hammer behind her. "Can I join you?" She asked. Her voice echoed through the cave, but no one paid attention to it.

"Sure .. why not," Gray shrugged and turned around again, starting to smash the rock with gold inside with his hammer. "How's your head?" Claire asked out of the blue.

Gray stopped hammering and turned his head to look at her; she was standing next to him at her own rock. His hand went through his hair to feel the bump. It was rather swollen, it still hurt, but it wasn't as bad as the impact of the rock. He shrugged once again.

"It's okay," he said. The blonde continued to mine the golden ore out of the rock, and silently, Claire mined right beside him. Together they worked in silence, with the only sound coming from rocks smashing into little bits. Neither of them said anything, and in a way, Gray preferred it like that. Of course, he was better and faster than her but he didn't pay much attention to the blonde girl, as he was concentrated on getting some gold.

He stopped once he saw he could gather the gold. Gray took off his cap and whipped off some sweat from his forehead. He bent down to gather the gold and put it inside of his backpack he brought with him. Claire took the opportunity to say something.

"I don't always say sorry," she began. Gray stood up to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "I just say sorry really fast because I always blame myself for bad stuff that happens." Gray said nothing as he listened to her in silence.

"I know I say it too much, but for the moment I can't help it," she finished with a small, sad smile. For a second again, Gray thought she looked like she was lost on her own but thought nothing of it. It was funny how he was a guy who would rarely say he was sorry, and right in front of him was girl who couldn't stop saying sorry. Very ironic actually.

Gray lowered his guard a little as he looked at the girl. "Maybe I could learn something from you," he said. Claire's eyes looked into his own. "I rarely say sorry at all." He never really talked about himself, not even to Cliff, so it even surprised himself when he said that to a girl he barely knew. The girl smiled at him, a warm smile that made him want to smile with her.

That was the beginning of a friendship.


	3. Hard Worker

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** I randomly googled English last names (even though HM is Japanese) for the characters. Also, I'd like to add, neither Gray nor Claire has got a crush on either of them, they're beginning to be friends and that's it. Yes I like to be slow with my stories I also changed the summary a little and changed its genre to just 'romance'. Of course that doesn't mean I'm not going to write humor anymore, it just means there's more bonding than laughing.

**Chapter 3 – **_**Hard Worker**_

--

"Okay," Gray started and showed Claire how to hold a hammer. The blonde girl copied his grip on her own silver hammer. "Now swing it across your head, be sure to not hit your own back," he instructed her to do.

The blonde girl nodded and swung the hammer over her own head with all her might. Gray took a step back and watched with an amused grin as he saw the girl fall down to the ground because of the weight of the hammer. The girl muttered something before her blue eyes looked at Gray's.

"You're so mean, you made me do that on purpose!" She exclaimed and picked herself up to point her finger at Gray's face.

Gray shrugged and grinned at her. "Not my fault you lack the proper strength to hold a hammer," he said honestly. In fact, he didn't even know she was so weak that the hammer would bring her down to the ground – it was amusing to say the least, but not his fault. Both him and Claire were mining in the cave. Today he tried to give Claire some tips on how to swing a hammer properly when they accidentally ran into each other again at the cave today.

It had been a couple of days since they mined together for the first time. Right now it was around 5 pm, it was getting late. Claire dusted off her dirty jumpsuit while glaring at Gray. She then raised her head in a thoughtful manner. "Gray?"

"Hm?"

"What's your last name?"

That was a very random question indeed. Gray straightened up as he looked down on the girl. "Collins, Gray Collins," he said very seriously. This made Claire chuckle a little at the way he said it. "So, are you working undercover just like 007?" She asked jokingly. Gray said nothing but gave her a small smile.

Gray picked up the hammer from the ground and swung it over his shoulder. "So, what's yours?" He asked, a little interested. Claire flashed him a smile as she answered; "Haynes."

"Well Claire Haynes, I think it's time for us to stop," said Gray as he picked up his stuff and started walking out of the cave. Claire hurriedly stumbled after him, trying to keep up. When they got outside, it was raining hard. The sky was all dark and cloudy with rain pouring down from the clouds. The atmosphere was damp but cool.

"It's raining," stated Claire dryly. Gray shot her a weird look as his clothes started getting wet. "Thanks for the weather report," he retorted, then started walking away from the cave. This time, they took the route through Claire's farm. Usually Gray had to take a detour because otherwise he'd be on someone else's property. While they walked, he saw how Claire's hair got darker and more wet after just a few seconds. He mused on the thought that he was always wearing a protective cap.

They arrived on Claire's farm. Claire looked at her crops and smiled. "At least I don't have to water them tomorrow," she said as they walked by the crops. Gray walked in front of her and stopped at her front door. It was a little house, just big enough for one person to live in. He looked at her big field, it was ten times bigger than her house, although very messy still, with random rocks and branches everywhere. Claire appeared by his side; they were both soaking wet by now.

"Sorry for keeping you that late, now you're all wet," she apologized and popped her key in the keyhole of her door. Gray sighed. "I don't mind the rain, it's actually nice," he admitted.

"Do you want to come in and stay until the weather clears up?" She asked as she opened her front door. Gray shook his head shyly. "No, I should head back to the inn by now."

Claire nodded and took her own stuff from his hands. "Okay, good night then," she said and stood at her door-post. Gray gave a little flick with his hand to wave. "Night." Then he left, in the pouring rain towards the inn.

When he finally arrived at his room – Ann was staring at his wet clothes when he entered the inn – Cliff was there sitting on his bed, reading a book. Gray threw his things on his own bed and started stripping out of his wet clothes. Cliff's eyes didn't leave his book and didn't say a word. Gray continued to take off his clothes and put on some new, dry clothes. He then laid down on his bed, pushing off his tools first.

"Whatcha reading, Cliff?" He asked, as his blue eyes scanned the book Cliff was holding.

"Harry Potter," answered Cliff quietly. Gray snorted at it. "Harry Potter? Aren't you a little too old for that?" He asked as he sat up straight.

"Ann made me read it .." Cliff responded with reddened cheeks. The blonde rolled his eyes, of course Ann would like something like that. He then leaned back on his pillow and closed his eyes.

When Gray woke up again, it was 7 am. The blonde got up really fast and started preparing to leave the inn – he had work today! As he rushed towards the blacksmith, he noticed that he wasn't that late, as he usually enters the blacksmith at 7:40 in the morning. He slowed down as he saw the blacksmith and entered it.

"Humpf, you're early," complained Saibara from behind the counter. Gray didn't pay any attention to him and went to his own little spot. He'd been working on his own brooch for a couple of days now, and he had gathered the necessary gold and silver that he mined. It wasn't finished, not at all. It would take a couple more days until it was. For now, it looked like a weird silver circle that didn't really have a shape to it. Gray smiled to himself as he thought; _I'm going to finish this without screwing up._

As time went on, Gray kept working on the brooch, improving on imperfections that were visible. His grandfather kept quiet and minded his own business, but kept a close eye on Gray. Then Gray heard the door open from behind him. He turned around to greet Claire who would always come at 10 am. By now, he was used to seeing her around this time.

It wasn't Claire who walked into the blacksmith though. It was Mary, the librarian. For a split second, he wondered if Claire was okay, because she was always sharp on time. His blue eyes scanned the shy and black haired librarian. She was holding a broken tool in her hand, he couldn't make it out what it was exactly, it was too damaged.

"Good morning Mary, how are you?" Asked Saibara in his usual tone. Mary smiled at him and placed the broken tool on the counter. "I'm very well Saibara," she replied, glancing at Gray who tipped his cap to her and returned to his own work because he wanted to finish his brooch faster.

"Oh ho ho, what in the world have you done to this tool?" Asked Saibara incredulously, not believing someone could have damaged something that much.

Mary smiled shyly and adjusted her glasses. "It broke, could you fix it for me?"

The old man studied it and then nodded at her. "It'll be ready in three days, come pick it up then."

The librarian said a small thank you and left the blacksmith. Not soon after did the door open once again. Gray glanced behind him and saw the familiar blonde hair of Claire.

"I'm sorry I'm late, my chickens were fighting," she apologized and placed her rucksack on the counter. Gray watched how she pulled out a silver ore from it. He mentally smiled at her; she was improving her mining skills.

"My, my, you're such a hard worker, Claire," said Saibara as he picked up the silver ore and expected it. "Gray, you should take her as an example of how to work harder."

Gray lowered his eyebrows at his grandfather, but decided to say nothing. Last time he got in a row with his gramps, he had pushed Claire rather hard. He didn't want that to happen again. So instead, he greeted Claire.

"Mornin'," he said, tipping his cap towards her. Claire smiled at him from behind the counter. "Hi Gray, can I ask a favor of you?" Asked Claire as she fiddled with her fingers. Saibara took her silver ore and went to another room to store it in.

"Sure, go ahead," answered Gray, wondering what she would be asking.

"Could you come by my farm after you're done with work?"

"Alright, I'll be there after 1 pm," replied Gray. He was planning on going to the library today, but hey, she needed a favor of him and he was a gentleman enough to offer her help if she needed it. "Okay, see you then," she said happily and took the money off of Saibara's hands who just came back to the counter. She bid them a goodbye and disappeared from the blacksmith.

"Such a young girl, and yet a very hard worker," mused Saibara after she was gone. Gray nodded. "Yeah, she is."

At least now he had something in common with his grandfather, they both thought that Claire was a hard worker. The girl inspired him to work harder for himself too, which was a good thing. He started working on his brooch again with determination. After it was 1 pm, Gray cleaned up his work and left the blacksmith. Luckily, Claire's farm was really close to the blacksmith. On his way, he started thinking of ways to improve the brooch, so he was lost in his thoughts when he arrived. Claire greeted him when she saw him arrive.

"So, what's your favor?" Asked Gray as he looked around with his hands in his pocket. Claire turned around to the field and pointed her index finger at a very big rock. He raised up an eyebrow in return. They both started walking towards it as Gray kept the confusion on his face.

"..What do you want me to do with it?" He asked curiously. Claire trusted a hammer in his hands and smiled.

"I want you to smash it. I'm cleaning up my field, but this big rock is in the way. I've tried all morning to smash it, but I'm just too weak," she blinked innocently at him. "So I thought, you're a strong guy, right? You could smash it for me, right?"

Gray blushed a little at the compliment of him being a 'strong guy', but it gave him an ego-boost nonetheless. He tightened his grip on the hammer and smirked at the rock. "Yeah I can try," he answered honestly.

"Well that's great, go ahead and try!" Said Claire happily, as she stood beside him. Gray licked his lips and lifted up the hammer. Even though the rock was nearly as big as he was, he could always try and get it out of the way. So he took a big swing and his hammer made contact with the rock. The vibrations went through his whole body, to the point where it actually hurt. That didn't faze him though, he was used to the vibrations. As he took another swing, a crack started to appear in the middle of the rock.

"Oooh, you really_ can_ do it!" She said surprised as she saw the crack getting bigger each time he took a swing. Gray shot her a dirty look, she wasn't expecting him to actually be strong enough to break the rock.

"Go fetch another hammer and join in, that way it'll go faster," he commented, which made Claire go back in her own home and return with an old looking hammer.

"Do it on the other side from me, this way the power will collide in the middle, making it break easier," explained Gray as he continued to slam his hammer onto the rock. Claire went around the other side of the rock and started hitting the rock with her hammer. Both of them continued to do so until the rock split in half. Together, they hit the rock as often as they could to make them as little as possible before they were all tired out. Gray sat on the ground as he leaned against one of the bigger pieces of rock that was left. Claire was out of breath and looked at him with satisfaction. They both breathed heavily as they looked at each other in silence.

"Now that, was painful," complained Claire while breathing hard. "I don't think I can feel my hands anymore," she said while studying her shaking hands. Gray snorted. "It's nothing compared to my grandfather's training! He'll butcher you down until you can't move your body!" Complained Gray back at her.

She sat down next to him and leaned against the rock too. "Is he that bad?" She asked with curiosity. Gray nodded with his head. "Of course he is. He's world's most evil grandfather, and the bastard is lucky enough to be good at forging," said Gray rather annoyed.

"It's not helping he thinks whatever I make is crap," he added as an afterthought, looking kind of depressed. Claire said nothing, and instead opted to stare at him. Staring made Gray nervous, so he hid his eyes underneath his cap again.

"I think you're great," she said softly. "When I arrived here, I didn't know what to do, didn't know where to start. Then I saw you, working hard every time I entered the blacksmith. I thought; hey if he's holding out, I shouldn't give up either," Claire explained to him with a shy smile.

This revelation rather shocked Gray as he formed a small blush on his cheeks. He rarely got any compliments, and now this girl was saying that he made her not give up on her farm work. "I'm not that great," he admitted slowly. "I'm lazy, and I can't handle criticism, so I lose my motivation to keep working better."

"I'm sorry your grandfather is so harsh on you," said Claire as she turned her head a little to see his hidden eyes. "I still think you're great though."

Gray said nothing as he stared at the dirt on the ground. The truth was, he wasn't great, neither did he work hard at becoming great. She was the hard worker here, he felt almost guilty of how much she had to do every day on her farm, while he could slack off as much as he wanted. Somehow, he felt like he had to prove himself to this girl, to show her that he could be as much of a hard worker as she was. To show her he could be great and all those others things.

"Isn't it hard to work all alone on the farm?" He asked out of the blue as he lifted up his head to look at the sky. Claire shifted on her spot.

"It's hard, but I still manage. You should have seen me when I first bought two chickens from the Poultry Farm over here. It was one chaotic mess!" She made a gesture with her hands to show how much of a mess it was.

Gray snickered at her foolishness. "When I first came here, I set the blacksmith on fire the first day. All the townspeople came to see what was going on – I could have died of embarrassment," he said while chuckling at himself. Claire laughed with him with a big smile on her face.

"At least I'm not the only one who screws up from time to time," admitted Claire, feeling relieved other people screwed up on their first time too.

"Don't worry, I bet I screw up twice as much as you do," reassured Gray.

The two kept sharing stories with each other as they sat on the ground with a pile of rocks. Gray found out Claire screwed up a lot, even though it didn't seem like it. On her second day, she bought the wrong seeds for the season, but never noticed it, not until after a few days when no plants were appearing. She also forgot to water her plants a few days. When she got the chickens, they escaped from the chicken coop and would run around the farm while she tried to catch them. During that process, she had ran over her crops, ruining them, and fallen down a dozen times.

Gray told her some times where he did something really stupid himself. Like that one time, where he was late and forgot to put shoes on so he arrived at work with just his slippers. Or when someone came in to get a tool fixed, and Gray worked on it but it only made it worse. In the end, Saibara had to pay for a new tool entirely. Then one time when he was working on some jewelry, he accidentally burned himself on his hand and Saibara had to call the doctor to pick him up.

"See, here's the scar," said Gray as he lifted up his right hand, and indeed, there was a scar in the shape of a circle on the side of his hand. Claire pulled a nasty face. "That must have hurt!"

Gray shook his head in modesty. "It was only second degree burn.. luckily the only thing that's left is a faded scar."

"You know, I just realized I don't have any scars on my body," said Claire thoughtfully as she tried to remember if she did have any. Gray raised up his blonde eyebrow. "None at all?" He asked.

Claire shook her head. "Nope. I never got really hurt at all, I'm very careful with my body," she said and then thought of something else. "I did fell down the stairs once when I was .. well .. playing a game and I was blindfolded and tried to find my friends. I spun around and counted till ten – I never got to ten because I suddenly didn't feel any ground under me and fell down the stairs. It got my shoulder dislocated."

"Ouch, that must have hurt getting it back in again," said Gray, feeling sorry for her.

"Yeah it hurt like hell, but I was only 7 at that time, so I've long forgotten that pain." She then turned to look at him and smile, thinking about her own private thoughts. He looked back at her and noticed how her hair looked more orange all of the sudden.

Gray suddenly stood up when he noticed the sun was setting, giving the farm an orange glow. "What time is it?" He asked while Claire got up too. She looked on her watch for the time. "It's 5:30 right now," she answered.

"Well," started Gray as he grabbed the two hammers, "I think it's time for me to go."

Claire nodded as they both started walking back to her house, to drop off her tools. Once again, Claire stood at her front door, saying goodbye to Gray.

The blonde guy looked at her before he decided to say something. "You know, you can always ask me to help you with something. I'd like to help," he offered shyly, avoiding to look into her eyes. He thought this was the least he could do for her, help her out from time to time. God knows how the girl could work all on her own on the farm without any help.

Claire chuckled at his offer and stuck out her hand for him to shake. He grabbed it with his own and they both shook hands, sealing the offer.

"Then it's a deal, Gray Collins!" Gray smiled at her before he turned around and gave a little wave with his hand, leaving the farm that was covered in the sunset's orange glow.


	4. Chasing Chickens

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N: **As you may have noticed, this story doesn't really have a plot. Plainly said, I'm more or less writing about Gray's heart events in my own way. Can you guess at what heart level he is now .. ?

Ch**apter 4 – **_**Chasing Chickens**_

--

Everything was going fine today. After he was done working at the blacksmith, Gray noticed his grandfather only yelled at him once. Usually that would rank up to maybe 5 times a day, yet this time it was only once. The blonde didn't really notice it because he was enjoying working on tools and secretly making the brooch. Then when he was walking on the road, on his way to the library, he recalled that maybe, he did a good job this time. The guy was trapped in his own happy thoughts when out of no where a chicken flew right at him.

If Gray wasn't so slow with his reaction time, he could have prevented from having the chicken knock off his cap and run away with it. The blonde stood there, absolutely stunned and shocked from the unexpected event. His blue eyes stared at the scared chicken who was running farther and farther away from him, with his cap of course.

"..The fuck, that chicken's got my cap!" He then exclaimed angrily and confused as he pointed to the vile creature flocking away.

Then someone knocked up against him who grabbed him tightly with tiny hands. Gray looked down and saw it was the blonde hair of Claire. Her hair was a mess and her overalls were all dirty with mud and grain. She was, having a bad day to say the least. The source of it all wouldn't be hard to guess when she finally she started to talk.

"They're evil Gray!" She sputtered out, with tears in her blue eyes. "They absolutely hate me!" She then started to sob against Gray's jacket, who was standing there awkwardly and confused.

"The chickens .. they attacked me – I don't want them anymore!" She sobbed to him, her tiny hands grasping his jacket and pulling herself closer to him. Gray had absolutely no idea what was going on, or how in the world he could comfort a girl. He couldn't stand people who were crying, because it made him feel awkward and nervous. Like he was feeling right now. Before he could say anything, chicken number 2 flew right past him, picked at Claire's pants to piss her off and then fled away from them.

"See!" She cried out as the chicken disappeared in the distance. Gray then pushed himself away from Claire, who was whipping away her tears from her eyes.

"I'm sorry .. I'm crying here .. oh I even wetted your jacket," she stammered out as she inspected Gray's jacket. He looked at it and saw indeed two wet spots on where she had leaned her face against.

"It's ok .. hehe," said Gray awkwardly, not quite knowing how to act around her.

Luckily, he was saved by Rick. The brunette male stomped by, holding a chicken in his arms and looked quite mad. He was the guy who worked at the poultry farm and probably sold the evil chickens to Claire. She was still sobbing a little and gave a small yelp when she saw the chicken again, and the evil face of Rick.

"I can see you're not treating my chickens right! I picked her up when I saw her running away from you," He said, while holding the chicken closely to him. Claire's head fell down to look at the ground and she muttered a small sorry. Gray stood there, watching the two interact with each other. It wasn't right of Rick to say she wasn't treating his chickens right, one of them even stole his cap! Those chicken were, in fact, evil like she claimed them to be.

"I'm going to give this one back to you and expect great care given to her," said Rick in a threatening way and trusted the chicken in her arms. "You better not lose the other one either!" He added. Claire gulped and held the chicken tightly so it wouldn't escape.

"I-I won't! I promise!" She lied to him, knowing full well that the other chicken was long gone by now. _Shit, that one still stole my cap, I need to get it back!_

When Rick started walking back to the Poultry farm, Claire whirled around to face Gray. "Gray, you've got to help me find that chicken back!" She pleaded from him, clutching the other chicken in her arms.

Gray rolled his eyes at her. "Of course, I'm going to help you find your chicken back, she stole my cap too you know," he said, honestly wanting to help her even if the chicken didn't steal her cap. The poor girl looked like she was going to crack and cry all over him – which is not something he wanted to experience again. It made him feel very helpless and awkward, so she better not cry on him again! Thus, right now, he felt compelled to help her out. Who knows how much those chickens abused her to scar her for life. Someone had to help her out just a little.

"..When I find that chicken I'm gonna kill it, roast it, and then eat it," mumbled Claire under her breath. Gray raised an eyebrow suspiciously and took a step back from her. Both of them started walking back to her farm in silence to lock up the other chicken. When they finished doing that, they walked back to the road where the chicken ran away from.

"Did you see where it went?" Asked Claire as they were both standing on the crossroad. Gray turned around and pointed ahead of him. "Towards the library," he said, fully remembering where the vile creature took off with his cap. Then they started walking towards the library, looking from left to right to see if they could spot the chicken.

Once they arrived at the library, Gray could see that Mary was sitting outside of it on the little stairs. She was holding a chicken, and right next to her, was Gray's infamous cap. The blonde boy smiled when he saw that his cap was rescued, it seemed to look fine still.

"Hi Gray," greeted Mary while she shot him a shy smile. Gray greeted her back, but his eyes never left his cap.

"You're the new farmer right? We haven't been properly introduced yet, my name's Mary," said Mary as she stood up with the chicken in her arms, sitting there silently. She looked at Claire's messy state with a weird gaze, seeing as Claire's hair was really messy and she was still covered within dirt, mud and grain.

"I'm Claire, and I think you're holding my chicken .." mumbled Claire as she glared at the chicken, who looked as if it was glaring right back at her. Gray found this amusing to say the least. He shouldn't find pleasure in someone else's displeasure though. He then bent down to swoop up his UMA cap and placed it back on his trusty blonde head.

"I saw this little chicken running on the road when I was taking a break, then I recognized Gray's cap so I thought I should try and catch it," she then laughed and added; "But I didn't even need to! She came to me and sat on my lap," explained Mary as she gave the chicken back to Claire.

Gray could have sworn he saw Claire look jealous at Mary for not being abused by the chicken as she was. He then looked at her blonde hair and had to chuckle a little, it was really a chaotic mess on her head.

"Thank you, at least you didn't get attacked by the chicken, so that's a good thing." She then lowered her voice and Gray had to lean closer to hear what she was saying. "It means I can't eat it anymore because it isn't pure evil.." Mary didn't hear the last part, so she just smiled back at Claire.

"Well, I'm going to go back to the farm now, so bye Mary. Thanks again for catching my chicken," she thanked, then turned around to leave with the chicken in her hands.

"And thank you for rescuing my cap," thanked Gray as he shot her a smile. Claire disappeared into the distance and Mary nodded her head.

"I haven't seen you in the library lately," said Mary to start a conversation between the two. Gray scratched his head and remembered he indeed hadn't gone to the library for maybe a week or two.

"Yeah I know, I've been busy," he answered. Gray wasn't really that busy, he was just busy with Claire sometimes. He vaguely wondered if he could call Claire his friend now, or maybe she was still just an acquaintance? Gray never really liked giving people titles.

"Well, I'll look forward to seeing you again then, bye Gray!" Said Mary as she turned around to walk up the little stairs to enter the library. Gray followed her with his eyes and then turned around himself to head back to the farm to check up on Claire. He hoped the chickens hadn't attacked her again. When he arrived in Claire's farm, he saw that she was sitting on a small rock in the middle of her field. He slowly walked up towards her. The girl looked up and gave him a little smile.

"You got your cap back," she said, noticing he was wearing it again. Gray smiled. "Yup, I do! And you got your chickens back."

"Evil chickens Gray, evil," Claire corrected him with a serious tone. "What do you think about chickens?" She asked as she stared into his eyes. Gray stepped a little closer her, he towered her by a lot now that she was sitting down on the rock.

"Well, I think they taste good," he said jokingly. Claire gave him a smile. "Do you think I should give mine back to Rick .. ? I just don't think I can handle them any longer.."

"You shouldn't give them up!" Blurted out Gray. He was taken aback by himself, and even Claire looked up at him weirdly. "Yeah, I ..uhh, I mean you should keep trying, right?" He honestly thought she should keep trying, and not just give up. Just like how he shouldn't give up on his forging either.

"I guess.." said Claire distantly as she looked at the ground. Gray knew she was a little sad, and again he didn't know how to deal with that. Crying, sad and depressed – he was absolutely clueless with those emotions. This girl was a little too emotional for him. Awkwardly, Gray tried to think up of something to say.

"Do you even want to be a farmer?" He asked with a soft voice, hoping he was doing the right thing.

Claire looked up at him again and thought for a long time before she responded. "Well I wanted to try it out, and so far it hasn't been good."

"My forging wasn't good either when I first started," said Gray to share some of his miseries as well. "I'm working harder though now, I'm actually liking it again," he finished with an awkward smile. The boy couldn't believe he was so open with her, and couldn't believe he was trying to make her feel a little better.

Claire looked at her field, at her half-grown crops and at her chicken coop. Then her eyes landed back on Gray. She smiled at him. "Well, working harder doesn't hurt to try, huh?" She said a little less sad this time.

Gray placed his hands in his pockets and looked around. "I'll tell you what. I'll forge something really good and give it to you, if you promise me that you won't give up on this farm. See, if I can do something by hard working, you can too, right?" He finished his little speech, and was proud of himself that he didn't stumble over his words this time.

The blonde girl hopped off the rock and stood up straight next to him. "It better be really good to make me stay here!" She joked. Gray smiled back at her and thought about her words. Was she going to leave if she didn't like to farm anymore? Somehow, right now she reminded him of himself, his negative attitude about his work. He thought he was going to give it all up, but then again she made him want to work harder. The least he could do is to make her not give up either.

"Hey Gray, what does UMA on your cap mean?" Claire randomly asked as she inspected his cap.

Gray tipped his cap and chuckled. "It's Japanese for Horse. I was born in the year of the horse," he explained to Claire who listened intently.

"I was born in the year of the sheep," She replied back. "I'm not sure if I like sheep though .."

Gray then counted in his head, and knew that Claire was one year younger than him. Secretly he smiled as he looked at her messy hair again, and knew she was only one year younger than him. She seemed more mature, but her looks made her look much younger than he expected.

"Hey Claire?"

"Yes?"

"You look like crap."

Claire's eyes widened as she looked down on her clothes and noticed all the dirt and mud on her. She then sighed loudly and started to brush her fingers through her hair to make it straight again. Gray could do nothing but laugh quietly at her.

"Thanks for telling me Gray, you're such a nice friend," she said sarcastically. Gray noted that she used the word 'friend', but then again she was being sarcastic too. He lowered his eyebrows and thought deeply; did she consider him a friend or not?

"I'm going to take a shower, do you want to come?" Claire asked as she stared at him when he was being quiet.

"What!?" He exclaimed surprised. She wanted to take a shower with him!? His cheeks filled up with blood and he started to resemble a tomato. Claire laughed at him and playfully punched him on the arm.

"Get your mind out of the gutter! I meant do you want to come to my home and stay while I take a shower?" She explained while she finished laughing at the confused and blushing Gray.

"Uhh, uhm.. I guess, sure," he said softly, staring at the ground and wishing it could swallow him because he felt unbelievably stupid. How could he think she meant to take a shower with him? Sometimes, he could be really stupid and misinterpret stuff. _Come on Gray, stop blushing now!_

Claire smiled at him as she saw his discomfort around her, but skipped back to her house with Gray right behind her. Thankfully, his blush was starting to go away when they entered her house. His blue eyes looked around and saw a brown sofa, a little dinner table, a small tv, a small kitchen and a small bed. There was also another door that probably led to the bathroom. The boy stood there, at the doorpost while Claire made herself more comfortable and took off her overalls, showing her normal clothes.

It was probably the first time he saw her without her blue overalls. She was wearing a black and white striped shirt with jeans underneath it. She blinked her eyes at him when she saw he wasn't coming in the room.

"You can come in you know," she said while she grabbed her overalls and headed for the bathroom.

Gray stepped inside and looked around, not really feeling comfortable in her house. Claire looked at him and told him to sit on the sofa, which he did.

"I'm going to take a quick shower now, so you can just sit here and watch some tv. There's some milk in the refrigerator if you want some." She then left the living room.

Gray sat back on the sofa as he stared at the tv that was off. After a while, he got bored and turned it on. He also looked in the refrigerator, and once he saw that the milk was expired, he immediately slammed the door shut and sat back down to watch some more tv.

He wondered what he was actually doing in her house. A thought popped up in his head that maybe he wanted to be there. Blue eyes looked at the bathroom door as he heard running water coming from it. Maybe, for some reason, he wanted to be friends with the girl. Cliff was okay, but way too shy, and Mary was living too much in her own dream world for them to really like each other. Basically, Gray didn't have any good friends to talk to, and he felt comfortable around Claire. Plus, even if he could get along great with Kai, he was only there once a month of the year, so that didn't really help.

The tv disturbed him from his thoughts and he directed his eyes on the screen. Somehow, Gray felt very pathetic because he didn't have many friends. He sunk deep into the sofa and stared at the tv until Claire popped from the bathroom.

Her hair was darker and wet, dripping with water. She came out with her clothes on and sat down on the sofa next to Gray.

"Your milk is expired," commented Gray while he kept staring at the tv. Claire slapped her head. "I'm sorry! I totally forgot to buy some new milk," she said and scolded herself for forgetting.

Then the both of them went silent. It was an awkward silence were no one had something to say, not until Gray decided to speak up.

"Are you going to keep working on the farm?" He asked, this time turning his head to look at her.

Claire flipped her wet hair out of her face and chewed on her lip to think. "Yeah, I think so."

Gray smiled quietly. "Good, I wouldn't want you to have to leave when we're just starting to be friends," he said bluntly. This shocked Claire a little but it made her smile really wide.

"You know Gray, you're my first friend here in Mineral Town," she said with a big smile, happy knowing that Gray thought a friend of her too. The blonde boy started to blush a little again when she said that, and shook his head at her.

"Impossible! You should have tons of friends," he said, not believing he was her first friend in town.

She smiled sadly at him. "No, the towns people are really friendly, but that's it. You're the only one who actually talks to me and helps me out a little," said Claire honestly. Gray had to admit, she was kind of right. When he first arrived here, the tows people were indeed friendly, but they never cared enough to make friends with him. They were kind of like; stick to your own group.

"I-I don't have many friends either.." Gray admitted in shame, feeling rather bad. "There's Cliff who's kind of nice, but he's really shy and sometimes it's awkward to talk to him. And then there's Mary, you met her, she invited me to go to the library every week to see her. I did that for a while, but we just never really got –" Gray stopped as he noticed he was rambling and Claire kept looking at him with a more sad smile.

Claire then smiled and laughed at him. "Don't tell me you're not the people-person, huh?" She asked jokingly.

Gray hid his eyes again underneath his cap. "I'm not good around people," he muttered. His eyes looked at Claire's hand as she placed it on his shoulder.

"Then how come you make me feel comfortable enough to talk to you?" She asked sincerely. Again, maybe the third time today, Gray blushed. This girl was really something to make him blush that often out of embarrassment. She took off her hand and waited for a reply.

"I'm sorry if I insulted you," Claire said softly when she noticed Gray wasn't saying anything back. "N-no!" Replied Gray as his eyes came out of hiding. "Well, I mean, it's just weird.. this is weird.."

Yes this was certainly weird. He never talked to someone this openly, not even his former friends from the city. Yet here he was, talking about having barely any friends with this new girl he only knew a couple of weeks. Then again, it felt oddly comfortable to talk to her. Like he knew that somehow she wouldn't make him feel bad like most people did. There was this weird thing about this girl that made him feel comfortable.

"Be my friend, Gray?" Claire asked hopefully as she sat a little closer to him, looking at him with innocent big blue eyes.

Gray coughed a little, then hid his eyes underneath his cap again.

"Sure," he said, but inside he was smiling.


	5. Thanksgiving Day

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** I know Thanksgiving day is supposed to fall on Spring 14, but I'm changing the dates a little so that it seems more realistic than only having 120 days in a year. By the end of this chapter, I wonder if people think my Claire is annoying already haha. Don't worry though, she'll change little by little, as will Gray. Sorry for the long update guys, so I'll give you guys a long chapter filled with drama, misunderstandings and fluff.

I changed the summery because I just loved that line myself.

**Chapter 5 – **_**Thanksgiving Day**_

--

There was flour, sugar, chocolate, butter and a lot of other stuff that Gray didn't really care about. How this came to be, it left him utterly puzzled. Somehow he had managed to get himself into this scheme to bake some chocolate chip cookies with Cliff, the shy guy. When he was still half asleep, Cliff had nudged him awake and asked a favour of him. To help him bake cookies, seeing as today was Thanksgiving day.

Cookies, huh? Who would have thought Cliff had the guts to ask help, or even the guts to give a cookie to someone he liked. Well, in order to actually bake cookies, Cliff needed a kitchen, and to use the inn's kitchen, he had to ask Ann. The blonde boy smiled to himself as he mixed a bowl of sugar and flour together. Ann was exactly the person Cliff wanted to bake the cookies for, so of course Cliff couldn't say he had to use the kitchen for _her_.

Nope, instead, they made it seem like it was Gray's idea to bake cookies, and Cliff was just helping him. The things he did for Cliff .. It was also really early in the morning. Yes, the two had gotten up mighty early to bake cookies, it wasn't even funny anymore.

"Okay, uh, add the two eggs, then mix it," read Cliff from a little paper, as he clumsily broke an egg and threw it into the bowl. Gray broke the other one and started mixing it all together. When the dough became really hard to blend together, Gray had to put more pressure on the wooden spoon as he circled it around.

"What the hell Cliff, is it supposed to be this hard!?" Snapped Gray at him when he found out he couldn't even move the spoon in the dough anymore. It was like mixing a bunch of rocks together that wouldn't budge.

The brunette lowered his head to inspect the bowl, he chuckled nervously as he grabbed the paper again. "It says here to add a little milk if it's hard to mix."

Gray grabbed a milk bottle from the refrigerator and dumped a large amount of milk into the bowl. "No, no! Not that much!" Said Cliff nervously as he saw Gray ruining the mix of cookies.

"Well hey if you want me to mix it, I need to have at least some sort of movement in it," said Gray calmly, then grabbed the wooden spoon and started mixing the bowl again. When it finally budged, Cliff read the next step on the list.

"Add one cup of butter," he said as he grabbed some butter from the counter. He sliced it into what he thought was one cup and threw it into the bowl. The two guys looked at the butter with empty eyes, as if they were waiting for it to magically melt into the dough.

"Well, you mix it this time," said Gray, having rough hands from holding the wooden spoon. Cliff nodded and took the spoon and started to smash the butter so he could mix it with the rest.

The blonde grabbed the little note from the counter and read the other step. "Add vanilla extract," he read, then reached for a little bottle with fluid vanilla in it. He opened the little bottle and let it run empty in the bowl. Cliff looked at it with horror in his eyes.

"I don't think you had to use the whole bottle .." he said dryly. Gray frowned at him. "It didn't say how much, so I assumed the whole thing," he said plainly. Gray was being very bold with cooking, it was so not his thing.

Cliff dipped his finger into the cookie dough and licked it off. "It tastes .." Gray copied him and took a lick too. "Like vanilla!" Finished Gray for him.

The two guys laughed at each other and proceeded to finish the cookie dough. After about 20 minutes, they were finally done with the dough and popped it into the oven (they made like 30 cookies) and waited until it was going to turn into a golden brown colour.

Then Gray remembered something. "Cliff, where are the chocolate chips?" He asked as his blue eyes looked inside the oven, at the plain brown cookies, that were missing the brown specs of chocolate chips.

Cliff's eyes went blank as he hurriedly opened the oven and pulled out the cookies. "We forgot!" He said shocked. Gray pushed him aside as he opened a bag of chocolate chips. "Don't worry, we can still add them right now .. right?"

Later on, they finally managed to complete the cookies – with the chocolate chips on top of them, all molten and burned. Gray and Cliff ignored the burned part and looked at the plate with huge cookies. Their eyes filled with satisfaction, they were proud of themselves, considering this was the first time any of the two baked something. When they tasted it, it wasn't exactly like a chocolate chip cookie as they hoped it to be. The cookie tasted more like a mix between a cake and a pancake. Gray reassured Cliff by saying it's the thought that counts.

"I sure hope Ann likes it.." said Cliff shyly as he scrambled up all the cookies from the baking plate. Gray's blue eyes looked at a cookie that had formed itself into a triangle. He grabbed it and laughed.

"I'm gonna hold on to this cookie," he said as he pocketed away. His eyes turned towards the clock hanging up above the stove. It was almost 7:30 am.

"Shit, I'm going to be late! See yah Cliff!" He said as he grabbed his yellow-coloured jacket and rushed away from the inn. For some reason, the thought that it was Thanksgiving completely escaped from his mind.

The blonde boy arrived at his trusty blacksmith. Okay, it wasn't really his, but he was its apprentice, so that counts too, right? Slowly he tried to open the door .. but it was stuck. Gray frowned and tried to turn the knob again – it was shut. It took a few minutes to realize that the blacksmith was closed, because it was Thanksgiving today. He mentally slapped himself in the head and slumped down his shoulders.

"Guess no work today," he mumbled under his breath. His eyes wondered around the area as he stood in front of the locked blacksmith, wondering what to do at 7:40 in the morning. An image of Claire popped in his head. He remembered the events from yesterday, where they had this awkward conversation about friends. The blonde shuddered – he didn't want to be in an awkward situation like that again.

As he thought more about Claire, he began to move his legs to the town's square. While he was walking, he realized that every time he talked to Claire, he seemed to put himself in an awkward situation that makes him tell her everything about himself. It was unexplainable as to _why_ he did it, but in the end, Claire just managed to open up his big mouth. His private thoughts got whisked away in a moment when she was looking at him with her big blue eyes. Gray realized he was thinking too much about her again. She made him feel comfortable about talking, but uncomfortable about what he was saying at the same time.

When he arrived at the town's square, he tried hard to remember why he actually came here. He walked to the notice board with all the announcements of the town. Gray's eyes traveled over the board and down to the ground. He noticed bits and pieces of glass underneath the board.

"Oh.." he said softly.

The day he met Claire, he stormed out of the Blacksmith and punched against this board, breaking the glass pieces in his hand. He remembered pushing Claire out of his way too. The blonde realized he sometimes had a lot of anger built up in him because of his grandfather. It had seemed to have lessened a bit though, ever since he started working a little bit harder.

"Good morning!" Said a familiar voice behind him. Gray whirled around, to face the person who greeted him.

Clad in her blue overalls, Claire the blonde haired girl was smiling at him. She wiggled a little bit on her place, waiting for him to respond.

"Ah, good morning.." said Gray. "I was just thinking about you."

Oh snap, here comes the awkwardness again.

"Really?" She asked, sounding curious. She walked a little bit closer to him, standing next to the notice board.

Just by _standing_ here, saying good morning, she managed to make him say what was on his mind. Gray sighed inwardly, trying to keep the uncomfortable level to a minimum.

"Yeah," he started awkwardly, "I was thinking about the day we met, and I came here," he finished, hoping he'd be done with the conversation.

The blonde girl just nodded, and Gray thanked the Harvest Goddess of not making this situation sound anymore embarrassing. Claire turned away from Gray to read the announcements on the board, which is why she came here. She raised her blonde eyebrows at it.

"Thanksgiving day?" She asked.

Gray nodded his head. "Yeah, it's the town's holiday," he replied, remembering when he asked about the Thanksgiving day too when he first arrived here. This little town had a lot of their own traditions and holidays.

"Isn't that the day where families come together and eat turkey?"

Gray couldn't help it, but he let out a laugh. Claire frowned at him, not appreciating being made fun of.

"No, it's not that holiday," he chuckled. "This is a holiday where guys give chocolate, or chocolate cookies to girls they like." This reminded him of Cliff, who was probably working up the courage to give his cookies to Ann. Poor guy, he'll probably eat the cookies himself with all of those nerves.

"Sounds like an old tradition," said Claire thoughtful. "There's another Thanksgiving day, but that one is for girls to give chocolate to guys they like," explained Gray.

Claire flashed a fleeting smile at him, and for a second he wondered why, but his thoughts were interrupted by Claire tugging on his sleeve.

"Why do you wear that big fluffy jacket?" She asked, inspecting his jacket's sleeve.

"They're my work clothes," he replied, not liking she was tugging on his sleeve. "Sorry," she smiled at him, as she stopped tugging.

"Isn't it a little hot though? I mean, it's almost turning summer and today was supposed to get to like 90 degrees."

Gray just shrugged. He liked his work clothes, and it actually made him feel cooler because it lets the air go through. "I'll take it off when I get hot, which is almost never," he replied.

"Oh, so I'll never get to see what's under there?" She asked innocently.

Gray's mind went perverted.

They were discussing taking off clothes, and knowing what's under there. Yeah, right, and Gray had to keep a straight face with all of this? His face started to turn a little hotter as he swallowed hard. This was _not_ a situation he was hoping for.

"D-don't be silly," he answered awkwardly.

Claire's smile faltered as she realized the double meaning herself. "I-I don't mean it like that!" She squeaked out herself.

Both of them stood there in silence, with a little red tinged on their cheeks. Gray couldn't believe that every other second he managed to get into a situation with her that made him feel extremely uncomfortable. He hid his eyes under his cap, waiting for her to say something. Claire was doing the same, waiting for him to say something. A slight breeze came by and Claire moved a little.

"Sorry," she said.

He rolled his eyes.

"For what?"

She adverted her eyes to the ground.

"For making you feel uncomfortable with me most of the time.."

Silence.

His face had gotten more red. Not only did she speak the truth, but did she really have to bring it up? This Claire girl really knew how to embarrass someone, or how to make someone feel like they lost their sense of logic and reason. Gray groaned on the inside – why he had to meet someone who could push his buttons, he didn't know.

"Look," he started. Claire's eyes shot up to look into his own blue eyes. He could see his own reflection in her eyes. It took him a second to realize that her eyes were a little more watery than they should have been. No .. no she can't be crying. Can she? No, he can't handle this _and_ a crying girl at the same time. He was about the finish his sentence when Claire beat him to it.

She sniffed a little. "Back at home, I made everyone around me always feel uncomfortable with me. I made them get into awkward situations, so eventually I never had any friends left .."

Did she_ have_ to say it with such a sad and lonely voice? Gray couldn't take it, seeing such a nice girl break down in front of him – all because he was uncomfortable with talking to her sometimes! She sniffed again. She mumbled something that sounded like a 'sorry'.

Gray got confused, he didn't know what to do anymore. He really didn't like having people crying around him – because he didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to act in most encounters with her .. His thoughts were all tangled up, and he wanted to say something ..

"D-don't cr – I mean, just listen to m- oh now don't start crying!"

The more Gray talked, the more she started to sniff. In a split moment, he looked at her with calm eyes, as he realized this girl had probably experienced something like this already, and he was just making it worse. Her eyes were watering more and more, but she was fighting desperately to hold the tears back. It made Gray feel like the worst person in the world. He wanted to make her stop, but he didn't know how. It was all so confusing.

She opened her pink lips, probably ready to apologize again.

Then he did the most unthinkable action in his life, ever.

Gray pulled Claire close to his chest and clumsily locked his arms around her waist.

In a moment, she stopped the sniffing, as she gently put her hands against his fluffy jacket.

At 8 in the morning, two young adults stood in the town's square while awkwardly hugging each other.

Gray then pushed himself away from her. It had probably been the most awkward situation in his whole life. He didn't know why he had suddenly given her a hug, but she was crying! He had to do _something_. It was the first thing that popped up in his mind like instinct; to pull her close and muffle her sniffs in his chest. Now more than ever did he feel terribly awkward around her. Bad, bad Gray, hugging a girl. Now she might think he's a rapist or something.

If this had been Cliff, or Mary, or even Kai, he would have walked away and thought they were weirdos, but this blonde haired girl .. With her sniffing sounds and her sometimes awkward conversations ..

He decided to not think about it anymore. It gave him a headache, and he would never know why anyway.

Apparently, Claire kind of realized something. Her big blue eyes look at him for a second – before she ran away from town's square.

It was 8 in the morning, and the first hug Gray had ever given to a girl, the girl in question had run away. For some reason, that kind of hurt his ego.

--

"Why thank you Cliff!" Exclaimed a happy redhead named Ann. Cliff sat on the barstool with a huge blush on his cheeks and his brown eyes casted downwards.

"Y-you're welcome.." he said quietly, but cheering on the inside that he worked up the courage to give Ann the cookies he baked.

Ann walked away to clean the dishes and she popped the cookie in her mouth. Her face cringed at the taste, but to not hurt Cliff's feeling, she kept chewing on it. When he wasn't looking, she spit it down the garbage disposal, acting if she was just cleaning the dirty dishes.

Both of them were interrupted by the door of the inn swinging open by such might that it crashed into the wall, and bounced back to hit the person in the face who opened the door.

Ann shrieked. "Are you alright Gray!?" She asked, as she saw Gray stumble forward, holding his nose.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he snapped, walking towards the bar where Cliff sat. Gray rubbed his nose a little bit, that door slamming into his face really hurt. He sat down and heard Ann and Cliff talking about him, but he didn't pay any attention to it.

When he started walking back to the inn from the town's square, his anger and confusion skyrocketed the more he thought about what happened. So once he reached the inn, he was ready to explode. It seemed he did have anger issues, but right this moment, he couldn't give a rat's ass.

"You look like a door hit you in the face," mentioned Cliff in a dry voice, hoping to cheer up his friend a little bit.

"Really!?" Said Gray. Cliff immediately shut his mouth and went silent.

"So, what's up Gray? You look like you're about to kill someone," said Ann as she walked towards him and gave him an aspirin already.

Gray rolled his eyes, ignoring the aspirin gesture, he just wanted to be left alone and brood in his dark thoughts. How can someone he has only know for a few weeks leave such an impact on him? That stupid Claire with her stupid apologies, and her stupid crying, and her stupid apologizing, and her stupid cry—

He sighed.

"Why does she have to act like such a victim and cry almost every time I see her!?" He said out loud, which made Ann and Cliff's heads pop up in surprise.

"Huh?" Said Cliff, not knowing what he was talking about.

"She seems to always put me and herself in a situation that will eventually make her apologize and cry as well .." he gritted his teeth and squeezed his hand into a fist.

"Calm down Gray, we have no idea what you're talking about!" Said Ann, wanting to make sure he wouldn't destroy her lovely inn or something.

"And then she has to run off when I tried to help her stop crying."

Cliff finally realized he was talking about Claire. Gray had been mentioning her a couple of times during their conversations, but he didn't know that he and Claire were already so close that she could piss Gray off.

Both Cliff and Ann looked at Gray in silence, waiting for him to say more.

"I'm done," he said in a snappy voice. Ann sighed in relief, her inn was safe from Gray's wrath. Except for the door.

"You know Gray, I think that's the most I've ever heard you say," said Ann thoughtfully. Cliff nodded in agreement. Gray never talked about anything so personal.

The blonde boy realized it too. "Blah!" He said and got off his chair, to walk outside.

In his brooding dark thoughts, he let his feet do the walking to wherever. He couldn't believe he was being worked up so much all because of a little thing that really didn't mean anything. It started out with a simple little perverted misunderstanding. It grew into her apologizing about it and then it just went down from there. He groaned out loud – why did he have to be angry and confused, all because she decided to run away after he gave her a hug.

Gray frowned and glared at the ground, which was turning into grass. Did he really care she ran away after the first time he tried to help someone? Did it matter she ran away? Did it matter he actually wanted to comfort her? Could he say it? Could he admit that it actually .. hurt .. his .. feelings…

"Oh my goddess, I've turned into a sissy," yelled Gray out loud.

He stopped walking. He was at Claire's farm. Of course he had to mindlessly wander over here. He glared at her little house, and her little mailbox, and her little dog that was jumping around, and her little self – wait what?

Claire, the girl who had confused him so much, was standing in her field, not far away from him, holding a watering can. Even when she ran away, she still managed to work hard on her farm. He noted this in the back of his mind, but right now it didn't matter. She looked at him from afar, but didn't say anything. Neither did Gray, he continued to stare back at her. His anger seeped away, he felt more calm, but his confusion was still there. They held their gaze for what seemed like forever, neither of them made a move. It was quiet and the sun was starting to get higher and fill up the sky with sunlight.

The girl put down her watering can and walked a little bit closer to him. Her long blonde hair swayed with the wind, and it seemed like she was walking in slow motion towards him. Gray didn't know what was going to happen – he never knew what was going to happen with her. Did he have to be here? Did he want to be here? Did it matter? He stepped closer too, until they were within 6 feet of each other.

He put his hands in his pockets and stared at her. Her blue eyes looked confused too. Her lips were tightly secured, seeming to not want to talk.

It seemed like it had been hours, until she finally started to talk. Her voice seemed soft, but the wind carried her voice over to his side. "Back in the city, when I tried to make friends with someone, I managed to always do something wrong while I'm talking," she said.

Gray listened.

"I sometimes say the wrong thing, or misinterpret something, and I end up apologizing."

Well, he figured that one out himself already.

"I don't mean to, and then whoever I'm talking to begins to feel awkward around me .. so I apologize even more, which makes them feel _more_ awkward."

She looked down at the grass. "I guess I then start to cry."

Her eyes got back up to look into his blue eyes. Gray saw with the look of her eyes, that what she was saying right now, seemed to happen a lot to her.

"I don't mean to cry, or make anyone feel uncomfortable. I just want to be liked, and I end up failing at it. The more I try, the more it backfires."

Gray felt his fingers touch something crumbly in his pocket. He raised an eyebrow, but kept on listening.

"So eventually, no one wanted to be friends with the cry-baby anymore .."

In the time she had started to talk, Gray noticed that he didn't feel angry anymore. He didn't know what he was feeling, but he wanted to listen to her talk.

"I really like you Gray, I want to be your friend, but I notice I make you feel uncomfortable around me too, and I don't want this to happen all over again .." she said with a sad voice. It seemed she was finished.

Gray decided it was time for him to talk. "So, why did you run away?" That was the burning question in his mind all this time.

Claire shifted on her spot. "I've never had someone try to comfort me that way, they usually ignore me when I'm overemotional and stuff .. I'm sorr-"

"You know, you should really stop that," said Gray. Claire said nothing.

Gray stepped closer to Claire, who looked at him with big, frightened eyes, as if he was going to say something mean. He pulled out his hands out of his pockets, and in his left hand was the triangular cookie that he made earlier today. He took Claire's hand, and put the cookie in her hand.

She rose her eyebrow at him, while smiling a little. "That was random," she said.

Gray shrugged. "It's thanksgiving, guys give chocolate cookies to girls they like."

Claire's big smile lifted up his heart. He felt like they just solved one of the biggest problems in the universe.

"Just try to not say sorry so often anymore, and you won't make us get into weird situations." Gray looked at the girl as she took a bite of the cookie. Her face cringed, but her smile never faltered.

"Okay, then I won't be sorry to say you suck at making cookies," she smiled innocently as she spit out the cookie from her mouth. Gray tipped his cap and chuckled – she was absolutely right.

From this day on, Gray knew a little bit more about Claire and why she acted like that sometimes. It didn't seem to be that awkward anymore whenever she would apologize, or cry, or whatever, because Gray knew she was just as much of a screw-up as he was.

She wasn't perfect, and he wasn't either.


	6. After Apprenticeship

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** For people who are interested in WATCHING this fanfiction, I made Chapter 1 of this story into a video using the sprites (and some created by me) from MFOMT. You can look it up on youtube, here's the link; /watch?vrkiGTfys-mw . Just put it after the youtube dot com URL.

**Chapter 6 – **_**After Apprenticeship**_

**--**

It had been a week or so since Gray's encounter with Claire's confessions. The whole incident was, rather weird, but kind of satisfying. He knew a little bit more about Claire, and came to know a little bit more about himself too. Sometimes though, he just couldn't seem to make anything out of her, and at other times she made perfect sense to him. All in all, Claire was a girl that definitely kept Gray's interest for a long time.

The young adult wiped off his forehead, he was starting to sweat standing so close to the fire of the forge. After he was reassured that Claire would still be his friend, he started working on his brooch again. He really wanted to finish it, and become better at it. Gray was enjoying himself while he held the brooch over the forge, making it glow hot. He whistled a tune he didn't even know. The heat of the molten brooch made him take a step back, as he placed it on his anvil.

Then he started to slam the brooch with a hammer to give it the shape he wanted it to be. You needed strength and endurance to do this sort of thing, and Gray wasn't _that_ good at it, so he got tired pretty fast – but was satisfied with the shape he got. He then started to weld it with other pieces of metal, like the silver and golden ores he got from the mine. Which reminded him of Claire.

Claire had already delivered her ores at the usual time already, and they made a little bit of chit chat. It made Gray's mood change for the better after he saw her.

Basically, Gray was doing a good job, and was pretty joyful, until he forgot that he left his tool in the forge, so the whole thing was glowing hot when he realized it. He tried to take it out, using another tool, but he accidentally dropped it and it fell on the ground, shooting off hot glowing sparks.

"Watch out!" He yelled out after he dropped it, but it was too late. The sparks hit his grandfather.

"Ay ay!" Cried out Saibara. He got hit by a few sparks on his face, but nothing serious.

The tool laid there on the floor, smoldering hot. Saibara's face got pumped up with blood, so he looked like a big tomato. Gray took a step back, swallowing hard at what was so come.

"HOW DARE YOU BE SO INCONSISTENT!?" He bellowed, with a voice that sounded harsh and old.

Gray shrunk in his shoes, as he looked down on the floor, quickly grabbing the tool more carefully this time and placing it on the anvil.

"YOU COULD HAVE CAUSED A CATASTROPHE! ARE YOU BLIND, MY BOY!?"

The anger in Gray started to build up – it was just an accident!

"I WANT YOU OUT OF HERE FOR THE REST OF THE DAY BEFORE YOU BURN SOMEONE'S EYES OUT!"

That's exactly what he did; Gray left the blacksmith angrily. How dare his grandfather yell it him so much for an accident? Why did he feel the need to yell.. at least he tried to be careful – the damage was already done, so what's the use in scolding him for it too?

Gray angrily walked away from the blacksmith, sticking out his tongue childishly at the workshop. His grandpa really pissed him off this time, it seemed both of them were in very bad moods today.

With raging thoughts in his mind, he thought he could get some cheering up from Claire, and walked towards her farm. His hands were angrily stuffed in his pockets, and he was walking in a fast pace, almost gliding over the red brick road. When he arrived, he looked around her field, seeing different kinds of crops growing already. The sight of her having at least some successful crops growing, made him a little bit less angry.

Gray's eyes scanned the field, but he didn't see the blonde little girl working on it. He shrugged, maybe she was in the house. He walked towards her little house and knocked a couple of times on the door. He waited a minute, then knocked louder and faster. No answer still. His shoulders rose up again, walking towards the evil chicken coop instead. The sounds of chicken cackling could be heard, but when he walked in, there was no Claire.

His blonde eyebrows started to pull together in a frown, he instead went over to her big barn. The barn didn't hold any animals at all, so he didn't know why he went over there .. but tried it anyway.

She still wasn't there.

"Alright, maybe she went to work in the mine," he softly told himself, turning on his tail and heading towards the mine. On his way, the blonde boy passed several blooming flowers, which were actually pretty to look at. It had turned summer since a few days ago. Thoughts of Kai visiting again entered his mind. He would be visiting Mineral Town soon.

Kai was the only real friend he had, besides occasionally talking to Cliff and Mary. He only visited during the summer though, which was annoying because Kai was the only person he could get along with – aside from Claire.

Gray arrived at the mine, and entered in there without any light source at all. He kept going in deeper and deeper, but he couldn't see a thing anymore. If Claire was indeed in the mine, he would have at least seen light coming from _somewhere_, but alas, it was pitch dark.

"Claire?" He called out, and heard his voice echo further and further.

Clearly, the blonde girl was not here.

He frowned even more; where was she? Where could she be? Where would he look for her now? He thought hard, but couldn't remember where else she would be going. Maybe to the inn? Gray started walking back up to the farm, trying to get back to the inn.

He peeked inside the house through the window as he passed by, but no one was in there still. It kind of worried Gray, because he knew Claire didn't have any friends to visit either. He picked up his pace.

"Hi Gray!"

He stopped in his tracks, and turned around to see the person who called out his name. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth; it was Claire, alive and well. "Moooo," said the cow standing next to her. Gray realized that she was standing next to the Yodel's farm, pushing an un-moving black and white spotted cow.

"What the- ?" He exclaimed, not really sure what was going on. His blonde eyebrows rose at the situation before him.

"Hey Gray, do you think you could help me for a little bit?" Claire asked while she tried to push the cow in a direction. He walked over to her with his lips in a pout.

"Why are you pushing against a cow's ass?" Asked Gray dryly, pointing his index finger to where she was actually pushing.

Claire looked at him with her blue eyes and shot him a dirty look. "Because I find her ass fascinating – of course not, I need help getting her to move towards my farm. I just bought her from that old guy, but she won't budge!"

Well, at least now she finally had some use for that big barn of hers.

Gray walked around the cow, standing next to Claire, not really sure of what to do. She grabbed his hands, and placed them on the cow's behind. Not one bit did he like what he was doing, not one bit! Gray gave Claire a dirty look back, but she didn't seem to care. She placed her own hands on the cow and started to count to three.

"Okay, now push!" Gray groaned, but complied. Both of them pressed against the cow, and the extra strength that Gray gave her finally made the cow move. They were finally pushing the cow in the right direction.

Then the cow started to move a little too fast ..

Soon it was skipping away from Claire's and Gray's clutches.

It had run away.

"Shit!" Yelled Claire as she started to run after the black and white spotted animal.

Gray couldn't really believe it himself, so he stayed back and watched with great pleasure how Claire was chasing her new cow. By now, he didn't even care his gramps yelled at him – he's got entertainment now! Unfortunately, Claire had run out of sight, so Gray had to jog a little to find her again. He arrived at her farm, where the cow was standing in the grass, chewing on some of her crops.

Claire was standing next to it, yelling for it to stop, and pushing against it so it would move away.

The blond boy leaned against the mailbox, and watched the girl try and figure out how a cow's mind worked. His lips turned into a big grin, being terribly amused by the girl. Poor Claire though, it seemed all animals really didn't like her. The cow seemed to enjoy munching on her crops.

"Don't just stand there smiling! Help me!" She yelled at him from her field.

Gray scoffed. "It's on your field, what more do you want?" He yelled back at her.

"It's eating my crops!" She cried out, and let herself fall down on the ground, defeated. The cow mooed and turned its head towards Claire. It started to chew on her hair instead, because the cow thought it looked like hay.

"Ouch! Get away!" Shrieked Claire as she pulled her hair to safety, away from the cow. It mooed again and started to chew on her potatoes again.

Gray couldn't help it, he just started laughing at her.

"This is not funny!" Said Claire as she stood up in a split second, her face getting red and hot.

Then it happened, the most priceless moment ever; the cow decided it was time to take a dump right on her crops. The ugly brown cowshit dropped right on a couple of her crops. The air suddenly turned very disgusting and vile. The look on Claire's face was one of the most memorable memories in his mind.

Needless to say, in the end, Claire returned the cow to Yodel's farm (aka, making Barley come pick up the cow himself). After that ordeal happened, they both sat down inside her cozy little house. Gray was still kind of sniffling even after it was all over. He kept giving her glances and turn away so he could chuckle some more.

It was obviously not Claire's best day, which made Gray feel better about himself for not having a good day either.

"Every time you witness me be around animals, they go all coo-koo on me," said Claire in a spiteful way, as if it was Gray's fault all along. Sure, he was the one that made chicken attack her, and made the cow run away from her. He chuckled at her silliness.

"Animals just really don't like you," said Gray with a smile. Claire had noting to say about that.

"I'll stick with the chickens, even though I still don't like them. Maybe I should just get rid of them too," said Claire thoughtfully.

"Quitting on your animals, are we now?" Smirked Gray, remembered their conversation about not giving up on her farm work.

"Well sor-ry! I seem to fail at taking care of animals, or making them at least like me."

Gray's smile started to disappear a little. She wasn't going to go all emotional over him, was she? In case she started to cry again, a thought popped up in Gray's mind, and he spoke his mind as fast as he could before she started to become overemotional.

"Would you like me to help you with your farm work?"

He didn't just offer his help on farming, right? Even with all the kindness in his heart, he did not know one thing about farming – he was a blacksmith after all. Claire seemed to know this too, and instead gave him a smile.

"No, thank you, you should keep doing your job, and I should keep doing my job," she said, seemingly to have cheered up a little bit.

They both fell silence, but this time it wasn't as awkward as all those times before.

Then Gray thought of something. "Hey Claire," he started.

"Hmm?"

"Would you like to meet a friend of mine?" Asked Gray, wondering if she'd be interested in his only other friend.

"Who?"

"His name is Kai, he comes here in Mineral Town every summer to run his little restaurant at the beach," explained Gray, honestly wanting to introduce Kai his new friend. Hopefully he wouldn't make _too_ many moves on Claire, as he was quite the charmer.

The blonde girl smiled. "Sure! I'd love to meet your friend. Anyone who can be friends with you must be something special."

Gray didn't know if that was a compliment, or an insult. Claire laughed. "I'm kidding, silly! I have a sense of humor too you know."

When they both went silent again, this time Claire spoke up. "How was your day at work? I noticed you came out earlier than usual."

Gray sighed. "After you dropped off the ores, I accidentally dropped a very hot tool. Gramps scolder me for it and chased me out of the blacksmith."

He realized he was still angry with his grandfather after all. The old man really needed to stop being so strict on him all the time. Gray mentally cursed his grandfather and sunk deeper into the couch, forgetting there was a girl sitting right next to him.

"I'm sorry he's so hard on you all the time," she said quietly. "I don't want you quitting on your job either."

Gray sat up straight again. "Don't worry," he smiled at her. "I won't quit, I know I have to become better myself."

In all honesty, Gray knew he wasn't anything special. He was still learning all kinds of stuff with being an apprentice, but it would be nice if he could finally be a blacksmith himself. Plus he needed to become a better worker anyway, he wasn't earning that much money at his grandfather's.

"Gray?"

"Hmm?" Said Gray, disturbed out of his thoughts. "You're an apprentice right?"

"Yes, why?"

Claire casted her eyes on his cap. "That means it's just temporary, right?"

"Well yeah, I don't want to be an apprentice all my life .." said Gray.

"What happens when you're done with your apprenticeship?" She asked sincerely.

His blue eyes closed – he actually didn't have an answer for that. He was always thinking about becoming a blacksmith, but never actually thought what would happen after that.

"I don't know," he answered honestly and confused. "I guess I'd find a job where I can forge and stuff."

Claire's smile faltered. "So you'd leave?"

Gray had to think; would he leave Mineral Town to find a better job? Well he came here just to have an apprenticeship, he never counted on actually staying here after he was done. He couldn't keep living at the Inn where he shared his bedroom with 2 other guys, it was also very draining on his limited wallet.

The blonde cocked his head to the side. "I'm not sure, I mean, what kind of future would I have if I stay here?"

Claire said nothing and pouted her lips. "Maybe you could open your own shop here?"

"Hah!" Spurted out Gray, trying to hold in his laughter. "Opening a shop here while my gramps has 100 of all the costumers in this town? Yeah, not a good idea."

The girl was taken aback, she didn't like Gray making fun of her ideas. "I meant, something different than just plain forging."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know, I don't know much about blacksmiths .. but how about making jewelry? Or construction?"

"As much as I like both, they won't do very good in a little town like this," he answered, wondering why Claire wanted him to start his own shop.

"Well..!! Whatever!" She huffed and turned away from him.

Gray sat back against the couch, wondering what exactly he was going to do after his apprenticeship. He didn't really like Mineral Town that much, but didn't really hate it either. He missed the busy city though, where there are many opportunities to find a good job – unlike this dead like town.

Out of nowhere, Claire got up and ran outside of her house. Gray sat there; shocked and startled. Was she being weird again? Whatever it was, he got up to follow Claire out of her house – she was running over her field between her grass. It kind of looked like she was dancing. Hopefully she wouldn't step in the cowpoop. Gray slowly made his way over to where Claire was spinning circles in the grass.

"What are you doing?" He asked, wondering what absurd behavior had gotten into Claire.

"I'm enjoying my field," smiled Claire, stopping her twirling to look at Gray.

He looked around her field; it was a lot cleaner than before, but still rather messy. There was a patch of moon flowers growing at the end of her field, along with some crops. The grass he was standing in reached up till his ankles. Her little river made nice calming sounds as it flowed down to the ocean.

Gray smiled; her farm was rather nice.

"I never thought I could make something nice out of this junk when I first bought it," said Claire, sitting down on her grass and looking at her little stream. Gray sat down next to her.

"It didn't look nice at all, but now after a month, I'm beginning to really like it," Claire continued. "I like standing in my field, knowing it's mine, knowing I worked on this really hard."

She smiled at him. "I can't bring myself to leave this place even if I wanted to."

He finally got what she was talking about. She didn't want him to leave! A warm feeling gushed over Gray's body as he faintly smiled at the blonde girl sitting next to him. Did she really want him to stay here? Or was he misinterpreting her words? Probably the latter. He figured he might as well ask.

"You don't want me to leave this town, huh?" Said Gray bluntly. Claire's bluntness was starting to rub off on him.

Claire shook her head. "No, I don't," she admitted shyly, avoiding his eyes.

"It's nice working on this farm, and seeing my field bloom out into something great."

She stood up and looked down at Gray, who was looking up to her as well. They both stared at each other for a second, gazing into blue eyes.

"It's just better to share it with someone, don't you think?"

Gray had to agree. Even if he didn't own her farm, it made him feel kind of proud to see her standing there, gleefully with joy and admiring her own work.

Could he ever feel that about his own work? Seeing her so proudly watching over her field, Gray didn't dare to think of something badly – not even about his own work. She truly inspired him to start working harder so he could become a real blacksmith and be proud of his own work.

Then his smile disappeared.

If he became a blacksmith, he wouldn't be able to work here. He'd have to go somewhere else for work. It made him think twice about being happy to finish his apprenticeship.

Claire had stepped away from him and started walking towards her patch of flowers, bending down to smell them. Gray watched her every move as he saw the blonde girl pick one of the flowers and put it behind her ear. She turned around towards him and smiled, showing off her flower. He couldn't help but chuckle at her silliness.

She then skipped back to where he was sitting and plopped down next to him; smiling at Gray with her pink lips.

Could he really leave this town?

Just when he was starting to feel better about staying here since he met Claire? He really had to think about this, and right now was not a good time or place to think about leaving already.

"Oh look, the sun is setting," said Claire as she pointed towards the orange coloured sky. Was it that late already? He looked up too, finding the sky actually nice to look at when the sun was setting. It seemed time had been speeding up. Doesn't that always happen when you're having fun?

"When the sun sets, I come out here on my field to look at the sky," said Claire softly, still looking at the sky. "I find it calming and beautiful."

The young adult nodded and looked back at Claire; seeing her flower start to fall from behind her ear. She lifted up her head even more, to look at the sky, and the flower fell off. Gray caught it with amazing reflexes (at least _he_ thought so), and laughed at her, showing the flower in his hand.

"You dropped your flower," he said chuckling. "Oh," said Claire and smiled. Gray leaned closer to her and raised his free hand to her face. She stiffened her posture, but relaxed when he pushed her hair away from her ear and placed the little flower back behind her ear.

"There you go," smiled Gray.

"Thanks," she said, giving him a smile back.

He never even realized that he hadn't felt uncomfortable with Claire anymore; he had gotten used to her.

Together they stayed on her field to watch the sunset. The sky got darker and orange, making it a little darker around them. The temperature cooled down to a nice and comfy warm temperature. Both the blondes didn't talk, they enjoyed each other's company in silence as they watched the sun set.

Gray looked at Claire from the corner of his blue eye. She seemed calm and at peace right then and there. He smiled, knowing he made someone feel comfortable around him. Usually people around him didn't know how to act – Claire didn't even do anything besides be herself. As did Gray, he felt more comfortable around Claire just by doing nothing and be himself.

Maybe he had a charming side and he didn't know it!

Gray chuckled silently, but Claire heard him. She turned her head towards him, her blonde locks dragging over her shoulders. "What are you snickering about?" Asked Claire with a smile that was contagious.

"Nothing," said Gray innocently.

She eyed him with her big blue eyes, but turned her head away from him anyway.

They both fell silent again, looking at the sky. After a while, Claire turned her head towards him again.

"Are you going to stay in Mineral Town?" She asked out of the blue.

Gray felt this impending doom for some reason. He didn't really have a choice but leave Mineral Town right? He can't really stay here and live off of nothing but what his gramps pays every week, a lousy 40 dollars so he could pay for the Inn. Yeah, eventually he had to get a real job, and his own place, but looking at Claire's hopeful face, he couldn't bring himself to say he would eventually leave Mineral Town.

She would probably burst out of tears or something.

Gray rose his eyebrows at his own thoughts – would she cry for him?

"I don't know," he said after a while.

"All I know is that I still have months of apprenticeship going on for me – so I won't be going anywhere for a while."

That seemed to cheer Claire up by a little bit.

"Good! I don't want my only help at the farm to go away," she said jokingly.

"What happened to being friends?" Snapped Gray back jokingly, his eyebrows frowning in a very forced way.

Claire softly slapped his arm in a teasing way. "Oh, I can always find another one."

Gray's eyes twinkled playfully. "So you're leaving me for another one!?"

The blonde girl stared back at him, just as mischievous looking. "Well, you never did say we were in an exclusive friendship," she giggled, her blonde hair swaying along with her every giggle.

Gray had to laugh at that. "I like you Claire, is that not reason enough to be exclusive?" Blurted out Gray while he laughed some more.

She playfully slapped him again, this time laughing along with him. "Quit hogging me!" She said and smiled at him, flashing all her teeth. Gray's blue eyes sparkled and smiled right back at her. Anyone who would have walked by and heard that conversation, would have thought this was a bickering couple. It was far from the truth, Gray was just messing with Claire, and she was just messing with him.

It was nice having a friend like Claire.


	7. Got Hard?

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** I just wanted to ask you guys; is my grammar okay? When I read my fanfiction story that I wrote 4 years ago, my grammar was horrible! So is it okay, or do you still notice some tense confusions?

Also, finally my sexual themes will come into play. And trust me, guys like Gray – it actually happens when they're doing normal stuff like that.

Also, check my video on YouTube for the second Chapter of this story! Here's the link: /watch?vAVeWEqCis1U just put it after the youtube dot com.

**Chapter 7 – **_**Got Hard?**_

**--**

Today was the day of celebration. Gray himself couldn't believe it, but he did it; he finished the silver brooch that he was making for Claire. It was oval shaped, with nice little rims that looked fancy and done with skill. In the middle was a real sapphire stone that he found while going deeper in the mines. It reminded him of the colour of her own blue eyes. All in all, it was shiny, pretty, and done with hard work – what more did he want? He had to hid the brooch when Claire came in to deliver her usual ores though.

A big smile plagued Gray's face for the rest of the day. Not even his grandfather could bring him down, not when he finally finished the brooch. It was 2 pm, time to exit this blacksmith and go find Claire.

Because after all, it was Claire he made the brooch for.

With a lot of pride, Gray marched his way down to Claire's farm. Once he arrived, he saw Claire working on gathering crops that had finished growing. The smile was still stuck on his face when he approached the blonde girl, humming to herself.

She noticed Gray walking towards her and she waved at him.

"Hi!" She said cheerfully. She stopped gathering her crops and took off her work gloves. Her overalls were stained with dirt, and her hair was in a mess. That was every-day-Claire.

"Busy day?" Asked Gray, not wanting Claire to overwork herself.

"Yeah, it's the first time I'm harvesting crops, and since I'm doing it by hand it's kind of a painstaking process," she said honestly, wiping off some sweat from her forehead. Now that he noticed, it was pretty hot outside actually.

"Well anyways, I came here because I have something for you!" Gray smiled and put his hand in his pocket.

"Oooh, a present?" Asked Claire as she smiled brightly at him. Gray took out his silver brooch and flashed it at Claire.

"Is that the thing you were working on all this time?" She asked, while grabbing the small brooch off of Gray's hands. The blonde guy nodded with pride. She looked at it with joy, admiring the way he crafted it.

"I'm not an expert on forging, but this is really good Gray, good job!" Claire said cheerfully, clasping the brooch tight in her little hands.

Gray advanced a few steps closer to her, and took the brooch out of her hands. Claire looked at him with an eyebrow raised, but he ignored it. He then opened the pin and stuck it through her overalls, right above her chest on the right side. The blonde smiled at his own work, while the other blonde smiled right back at him.

"It's pretty Gray," she said honestly. "I know," he said smugly, feeling so proud of his work.

She giggled but said nothing. "I don't want to damage it though, since I'm doing dirty work in these overalls."

Gray winked at her. "Don't be careful with it, wear it down as much as you want; this way I know you've been wearing it instead of storing it away in a precious little box." Finally he finished the brooch and could give it to Claire.

It kind of felt like Gray was marking the blonde girl, but he really just wanted her to wear it because he had successfully created his own brooch. He didn't like it when people bought jewelry and then stored it away for months, only to wear it on a certain day. He wanted Claire to show off his pride, he made it just in honor of her.

Big blue eyes looked at him, smiling along with her lips. Claire then launched herself at Gray, gripping his back with her arms and pushing herself close.

The random hug startled Gray, but made him feel appreciated by her. He didn't push her away, nor did he move. He just looked down at the bundle of hay-like hair that was Claire. Silently he locked his own arms around her – not caring why he was hugging her, but only glad that she liked what he made. She liked it. The smile on his face got wider as he stood there with Claire on her field; locked in each other's arms.

It seemed longer than it actually was, but Claire pulled back; flashing a smile at him. She seemed to be very touchy-feely, a trait that Gray got more and more used to.

"I knew you could do it," said Claire happily, sliding her hands off of his arms, the warmth going away.

"Thanks a bunch Gray, I really like it." She looked down at the brooch and smiled some more.

It gave Gray a satisfying feeling, grateful that Claire liked his work. He was afraid she wasn't going to like it, or worse – lying that she liked it. It wasn't hard to see if Claire was lying, so he knew she actually liked it.

"I'll always wear it on my overalls!" She giggled. "Just don't complain when it gets worn down."

He chuckled. "I'm counting on it! Now I have marked you as mine," he grinned.

She grinned back at him, knowing he was only joking. After only a month of knowing each other, they both understood each other more than anyone else. They knew when they were joking, or being serious. It took Gray a while to understand Claire with her random outbursts of emotion, but in time, he got used to it.

The brooch he made was a sign of him appreciating Claire being his friend.

Claire shifted her eyes towards the ground, and then back to him. "Gray?" She asked.

"What?"

"Want to help me gather my crops? I mean, you're stronger than me and all."

Claire liked playing the 'you're stronger than me' card, didn't she? Well, whenever she used it, she still managed to make Gray feel like he had to help her, only because she looked so fragile and skinny. He never really could phantom how a little girl like her could run a big farm like this. He guess it was just by hard work, which is what he liked about her.

"Sure, I'll help you," he said reluctantly, but wanted to help her anyway. No way was he going to let Claire gather her crops from her whole field alone.

Together, with a new brooch for Claire, they gathered all of her crops from her field. They exhausted themselves, but in the end, they were done and dirty. Both blondes laughed, joked, complained and talked to each other while working on the field. Gray didn't mind helping Claire – he felt obliged to help her anyway. He just didn't want something straining her, or having her overwork herself. She was only one person, with a big field to work on.

Every time he caught Claire glancing and smiling at the brooch, it made his heart jump because he was happy she liked it. It extremely boosted his ego too.

After a few hours, they were done with the crops, and Claire only needed to ship them. They had put all the crops in boxes and left it at the shipping bin. They both smiled at each other's work. Gray wouldn't mind it like this every day. He actually liked helping Claire, or just being around her in general. It had gotten pretty hot during the time they were working. So Gray took off his cap and starting fanning himself with it. Claire's eyes followed his cap thoughtfully. Her eyes then shot up to him, as if she was studying him.

"What?" Snapped Gray, still fanning himself.

She smiled. "You look weird without your cap on," she said. He rose his eyebrow, but shook his head. "Weird how?" He asked.

Claire shrugged. "Just different I guess – I mean, you always have that cap on and I never get to see your cute blonde hair."

A small blush appeared on his cheeks, but disappeared in a flash. Quickly, Gray put his cap back on his trusty head, while eyeing Claire with his blue eyes.

"Do I look _that_ different without a cap on?" He sighed, knowing Claire was still staring at him.

The girl chuckled at him. "I guess you do." She then stepped closer to him and grabbed his cap by the rims; pulling it off his head. "You should take it off more often."

Gray didn't like her stealing his cap, so he tried to get it back, but Claire kept jumping out of his clutches.

"Give it to me!" He said to her, trying to grab it from her hands, but she was so fast he couldn't take it from her. "Aww, but you should keep it off for one day!" She said and smiled. Claire then jumped back a few steps so Gray couldn't take his cap back.

"I guess that's why your hair is so blonde," stated Claire. "It has never seen daylight in its life!"

"Give it to me," he growled and lunged, but she stepped back, "give it to me Claire!" said Gray in a dangerous tone.

Claire laughed at that.

"Pervert," she said.

It took a minute to register in Gray's mind to know _what_ was perverted about him wanting back his cap. Of course it was the _way_ he said it. His face shot red again – how could she be thinking of something perverted when his cap was on the line! Claire winked at him and stuck out her tongue. Gray couldn't have been more insulted.

He was at an actual loss; Claire was a girl, so he couldn't pummel her down to the earth and rip it out off her hands. Nor could he pummel her down to the earth because of various body parts he wished to remain untouched. The blonde boy glared at Claire who was waving his cap at him.

"I will get you back for this one day," threatened Gray.

"Well if you stopped being such a sissy, you could take it out off my hands!" She said back and shot him a devious smile.

So that's what Gray did. He appeared in front of her in a flash, and his hand shot out to take her wrist in his hands. Claire's eyes grew big and her mouth fell open – probably to say something. There was a second of silence when they were this close together, almost nose to chin. Claire gasped and was about to pull her wrist away from him, but Gray had already taken his cap out of her tiny hands. That was a peace of cake.

Claire mumbled; "No fair."

Gray just humpfed and turned around, to show his back to her. He slowly walked away – until he randomly jumped sideways. He blinked as his brain tried to catch up. It was his reflex reacting to the sudden poking in his side. Claire's tiny little finger had found its way in his most ticklish spot; his side. He whirled around to face her, and she was just grinning at him, showing him her finger. This was her way of getting back to him for taking his _own _cap back.

"I didn't know you were ticklish," said Claire thoughtful.

"I'm not," lied Gray.

Claire poked him in his side again, making Gray jump and growl at her.

It was the first time he had ever seen this side of Claire. Usually she was cheerful and quiet, timid and reserved, but today she was a little devil that spawned from the hellfire. Claire's smile turned into a smirk as she eyed Gray's side. He protectively hugged his own body, shaking his head at her. She started to advance on him in a cat-like manner, wanting to start tickling him.

So, instead of escaping her tickling fingers, Gray decided her could best counterattack with tickling her before she could do it to him.

It had burst out in an all out tickle battle. Both of them were flailing around with their hands as they tried to find a vulnerable spot on their side, and Gray was happy to find out that Claire was just as ticklish as he was. Seeing as he had more strength and agility, Gray easily outnumbered Claire, and eventually made her squirm in laughter as he let his fingers rise up and down her side. She kneeled down on her field, trying to breathe and at the same time asking Gray to stop it.

Gray was having too much fun seeing Claire bent over, laughing her head off because he was tickling her. In essence, tickling was torture, and the look on Claire's face said she agreed with that statement.

"S-stooopp Graaayy!" She gasped in between her laughs. She was now on the ground, in her field, on her back and trying to hit Gray so he would stop tickling her. He just couldn't help it, it was addicting to see her squirm, entirely helpless and in his power, while she was laughing with that cute voice of hers.

"But whhyyyy," he whined back, poking her in her side again. Claire flailed her arms around some more, and managed to hit Gray in the face – but he wasn't fazed one bit.

"I'll k-kill youuu!! Stooopp hahah!"

Claire's face had gotten red with all the laughing and Gray decided to stop to give her a breather, otherwise that face would turn blue. After he retreated, Claire clung to her sides as if her life depended on it. She glared at him with all her might, and it only made Gray laugh at her.

She then did something unexpected.

Claire tackled him to the ground.

Who knew that girl had _that_ much power in her tiny body frame!?

Together they flew in the mud where the crops were supposed to be. Claire went in an all out attack of tickling. Gray couldn't help it either – he laughed and laughed, and tried to push Claire off of him, but she had settled on him pretty comfortably. She refused to budge and clung to his waist with her legs as Gray tried to grab her arms so she wouldn't tickle him anymore. He managed to grab both her hands, which made Claire lose her balance so she toppled over him and crashed into his chest.

"Meanie, lemmi go!" She said while squirming and trying to get her face off of his chest.

Gray was having too much fun to let her get off of him, so instead, he released her arms and he placed his arms around her tiny waist, pulling her closer to him so she couldn't go anywhere.

"Gray let me go!" Panicked Claire. "You don't have the nicest smell in the world right now," she muttered as her face was buried in his jacket. Gray snickered, he probably smelt like shit right now after working in the heat for a couple of hours.

Gray loosened his grip and Claire's head popped up right in his face. She looked flustered from all the tickling she had to endure. The blonde boy smiled at her, and while she was probably hating him right now because of his torturing, she couldn't help but smile back.

It was then when Gray noticed ..

Quickly he pushed Claire off of him, making her roll over on her field and giving him a 'hey!' look.

"I-I need to go," he stammered out. "Like now. Bye Claire." With that, he had left the farm in the blink of an eye.

He made his way up to the inn, all the while thinking about that happened.

Gray's face got red as he thought about it.

While goofing around with Claire .. it had .. made him .. well … Gray blushed a deep shade of red.

_He had gotten aroused._

The thing down in his pants had gotten stiff and hard while he had been tickling her, and she had been sitting on him. Gray groaned out in embarrassment – why he had suddenly gotten turned on he didn't know. There wasn't anything sexual implied while they had been all over each other.. Gray stopped for a second and blushed even more. He rethought that sentence, and reworded it; there wasn't anything sexual implied _when they were just tickling each other_.

Gray pulled his cap over his eyes and hoped no one would see this tomato face. He entered the inn and immediately went upstairs to go to his bed.

Instead, he was greeted by the tanned guy named Kai.

"Yo Gray!" He cheered, making his way over from the room to Gray to shake his hand. "Haven't seen you around all day long – thought you were dead!" He said and snickered.

Gray tried, but he couldn't seem to be that happy with Kai returning to Mineral Town. The embarrassment from the last five minutes was still burned into his mind to be able to function normally.

"Welcome back Kai," said Gray as he forced a smile.

"Dude, you look like you've been caught in an act – what's up?" Asked Kai suspiciously, rubbing his chin with his thumb. His brown eyes stared at Gray, waiting for an answer, but there wasn't one. Gray had turned even more red, and his ears were burning with the blood running through them.

"Woa – what did you do Gray!?" Yelled Kai incredulously, seeing Gray's face getting redder by the second.

"You didn't rape anyone, did you!?"

Gray's head snapped up. "Of course not! I'm not that kind of guy Kai!" He yelled back at Kai, who seemed to be regaining his posture again.

Kai touched his purple bandana and smiled at Gray. "Come on Gray, I haven't seen you since last year, so spill it."

Gray's eyes shifted towards the ground as he pushed pass Kai to sit on his own bed. He stared at the wall for a minute as Kai waited for a response. Should he even start? Well, Kai was suspecting something already .. so he might as well do it.

"T-there's this new girl in town," said Gray quietly.

"Ooooh," replied Kai, as if he finally understood. "So you shagged her?"

Gray's eyes shot wide open and his face began to fill up with blood again. "No! I did not! We're just friends!" He yelled while he tried to calm himself down.

"Oooh," said Kai, understanding it more. "You _wish_ you could shag her."

The blonde boy's fist made contact with the wall. "S-stop putting words in my mouth Kai!" He yelled – he had totally lost his composure, he was completely and utterly confused right now as Kai kept filling his head with things he didn't even want to think about. Why couldn't Kai be more serious? It's not like he could explain his problem to Kai if he wasn't acting serious. Gray's eyes looked at Kai, who was sitting on his own bed now. Kai would have experience in this, right? He could ask .. why .. it happened .. right?

"Alright, alright," mentioned Kai with his eyes closed. "Tell me what happened."

Gray stiffened up, but opened his mouth to talk.

"Have you ever spontaneously .." he couldn't believe he was going to say this, "– gotten an erection while you were with a female friend?" Gray's face was now completely covered in the colour red, but Kai choose to ignore it. After all, Kai was comfortable talking about these sorts of things – Gray was definitely not.

"Plenty of times!" Said Kai. "It depends on how hot she is though."

Gray grunted.

"And depending on what you were doing with her at the time," Kai said thoughtfully.

"All I was doing was tickling her.." mumbled Gray under his breath, but Kai caught it. "So you were in a tickle battle?" Snickered Kai.

"Yeah, so what?" Snapped Gray back.

"Well Gray, I think you're old enough to know .." began Kai as he sat up straight to lecture Gray.

"Guys have hormones," said Kai in a deep, epic-like voice.

The blonde snorted. "As if I didn't know that!" He had never gotten hard while he was around girls, not that he was around them that often – it just never happened to him. He prided himself for not being like Kai who was an actual horndog and would screw even an old woman. Gray just wasn't like that, getting hard because he was around a girl .. Claire was his friend, and he felt very strongly that what his body was doing, was wrong to him in every single way.

"Gray, seriously – if you're having fun with a girl, with that much close contact while tickling – you're going to end up being hard, whether you like it or not," explained Kai with ease.

Of course he was speaking with experience. He didn't even want to think about how many times Kai had experienced something like this. Gray sighed, he didn't want to get hard every time he would fool around with Claire. It was wrong, totally dead wrong for him to get hard around his friend. He couldn't imagine the embarrassment if Claire ever found that out. If that happened, he would have probably never talked to Claire again, in fear of being laughed at by her.

It seemed Kai didn't care about Gray's problem anymore, so he smiled and opened his mouth.

"So, new girl eh?" He grinned.

Gray nodded silently.

"The new girl got my friend Gray over here hard while tickling each other," snickered Kai and Gray's face flushed with a shade of red again.

"She must be fricking hot then!" Claimed Kai after his analyzing was complete. Kai remembered Gray not ever liking a girl, much less talk to them. So if a girl could faze Gray, then she must be something, right?

"We're just friends Kai, so please don't go thinking wrong stuff." Gray turned his head away from Kai.

"So that means she's wide open for my charming side," said Kai, glad he didn't need to watch what he was doing while he was around the new girl. As long as Gray didn't like her, he was free to do whatever he wanted.

"We'll see if she'll find you charming." Gray thought for a second, and knowing how Claire acted, he could see Kai and Claire being totally embarrassed because of something she did. The blonde smiled; yes that's what was going to happen.

Gray then just tried to go to sleep, he didn't care it was early, he just wanted to forget what happened today. A blush appeared on his cheeks again, but he knows he would never forget .. what happened today. Hopefully he could think up of a lie to Claire why he had to suddenly go away. He didn't want to keep avoiding her forever, because she was nice, as a friend.

The blonde groaned as he rolled over on his bed as he tried to sleep, but the events of earlier today kept replaying over in his head again and again. The start of this day was pretty good, with him finishing the brooch and all. The tickling part was fun too .. until it was a little bit too fun for him. Gray sighed in himself; he still didn't know why he got hard. He usually got hard during the morning when he just woke up or something, but _never_ when he was with someone else.

_I guess maybe I've been a virgin for too long._ Gray sighed again, mentally slapping himself for thinking that. Yes he had been a virgin, he didn't really care or anything – Kai probably would – it's just that he really didn't care he had done anything sexually .. ever. Today it scared the wits out of him, and embarrassed him so much too, he's never like that ..

Or is he?

Kai had gone to sleep too, and a few hours later he could hear Cliff getting in the room too, getting ready for bed. Gray just couldn't fall asleep anymore, it was hurting his brain by replaying everything over and over again – it was starting to annoy him. A few hours later, in the middle of the night Gray got sick of it. He got up and sneaked out off the inn; towards Claire's farm.

When he arrived, he saw a little light burning from Claire's house.

_What are you doing Gray?_

He stepped closer to her door and raised his hand to knock.

_Do you have any idea why you are here in the first place?_

His hand formed into a knuckle and touched the wooden door three times.

_You're so stupid for doing this, what are you going to say?_

Gray shut his mind down; he didn't want to think. He couldn't sleep at all, it was plaguing his mind, so he thought if he would go visit Claire and explain to her why he left her, and it would ease his mind somehow. Yeah right, like explaining her he got hard because of her would actually help.

A couple of seconds later, the door opened. Claire peered through the crack of the door, until she opened it all the way. She was standing there in her white gown. It reached till her ankles, and it was kind of see-through, but not enough to see anything of her body.

"What are you doing here .. Gray?" She spoke softly, her hands on her doorknob, ready to close the door again. Gray forced his eyes to look somewhere else. What was he going to say? Sorry I ran away because you made me aroused? Even Claire wouldn't buy that.

He tipped his cap and looked at her face. "I .. uh .. I just wanted to say .."

What _did _he want to say, really?

Claire's eyes looked big and dark when it was nighttime, so it looked like she was really watching his every movement, which made Gray even more nervous. The blonde opened his mouth again, but nothing came out. So instead of waiting in the cool night, Claire stepped sideways. "Come in Gray," she said, inviting him in with a warm smile that she always carried on her face when she was around him.

Gray stepped inside of her house and walked towards her couch, Claire followed him barefoot. They both sat down, looking at each other silently. Her house was dark, only lit by a small little candle on her coffee table. He was lucky she wasn't even asleep.

"Well?" Started Claire. Her hair looked kind of messy he noted. Gray sighed deeply. What was he going to say again? Every time he was around her he couldn't find the words to say during a situation like this, so instead he would be spurting out random words. Which evidentially lead to him actually saying what was on his mind. Gray definitely did_ not_ want to say what was on his mind, he would _die_ of embarrassment.

"I'm sorry I just left you so .. abruptly like that," he said, trying to remain a serious voice.

"It's okay," she yawned and brushed a couple of blonde strands away from her face. Her face looked tinier in the dark, but her eyes looked bigger. Kind of like a child. Gray then noticed she looked pretty tired. Was she about to go to bed?

Gray then finally decided to be honest, and sighed. "Look, don't go thinking it was something you did –" in reality, it was actually about her, "it was all me."

His face was serious, but on the inside he was nervous he was going to blabber out that she got him hard. How hard could it be to _not _tell the truth? No pun intended.

He closed his eyes. "I will tell you why I left .. so sudden .. on my own time .. okay?"

Yeah, he was satisfied with the way he worded it. Score one for Gray finally being able to make some sense out of his own words.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw that Claire had fallen asleep quietly, leaning against her couch for support. Gray smiled at her; she probably didn't catch a word of what he was saying. He didn't mind, not that much anyway. Hopefully, she would just forget this by tomorrow.

A couple of blonde strands of hair fell from behind her ear, in her face. Gray got up from the couch and stepped closer to Claire. Should he leave her like this? Or put her in bed? Or just put a blanket on her? Or wake her up? Gray got confused at his list of many things he could do.

So instead he kneeled down and leaned his chin on her couch, looking up at Claire who seemed to be nestled comfortably on her couch, her night gown covering her whole body and acting as a blanket. The blonde boy gave her a smile as he saw her chest rise and fall with every slow breath she took. Claire was sleeping blissfully. It made him tired just by looking at her small, sleeping frame.

Who cares what he was going to do with her on the couch .. right now he felt sleepy himself.

Gray turned around to blow out the little candle on the coffee table and the whole house was engulfed into darkness. He turned around again to lean his head on the couch, right next to Claire's legs, who were cuddled up to her chest. Gray stared at her in the darkness for a couple of second, until he got sleepy.

She wouldn't .. _yawn_.. mind.. right?

Gray closed his blue eyes and easily fell asleep, when hours ago he couldn't even try.

In the back of his mind, he could hear Claire mumbling something in her sleep. "You still don't have .. the nicest smell.. in the world."

Gray rolled his eyes in his dream, and the whole thing was forgotten as he drifted off into his needed sleep.


	8. Roses & Lilies

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** While writing this chapter, I realized Ann and Kai would make a great pair together. Anyways, I want to thank everyone who has reviewed my story, and I'd like to ask to start helping me improve it! No more; I like it/love it! More like; it's good but this and that should be improved. Mk?

This chapter has a slow start, but there will be some progress towards the end of it. I didn't mean to leave a cliffhanger, but the chapter was getting too long! Sorry for the cliffy!

**Chapter 8 – **_**Roses & Lilies**_

**--**

It was hard, cold and kind of wet. Gray concluded that he was laying down on a wooden floor. Some drool had dripped from his mouth, onto the floor, and he had been laying in his puddle of drool with his face. He slowly cracked his left eye open, a blue orb looking around to see where he was. The blonde boy was indeed, laying on a wooden floor in his own puddle of drool. Gray lifted up his head – his cap had fallen off of his head while he was sleeping – and he looked around the room he was in.

There was a couch right next to him, and a little coffee table on the other side. He had fallen asleep directly in between the couch and table. Gray scrunched his face trying to remember.

_Ooooh, this is Claire's house._

Gray stood up from the floor and wiped his mouth, where some dried-up drool was. Thank goddess he didn't have to worry about work, it was Thursday today. He looked around, and in the kitchen was Claire, making breakfast probably. She was already in her clothes, probably being up for an hour already. The girl turned around with a frying pan in her hands.

She looked at him with her big blue eyes and smiled. "Good morning, Gray," she said.

Gray looked puzzled, she wasn't wondering what he was doing here, sleeping on her floor? He walked up to her in the kitchen.

"Imagine my fright when I woke up on the couch and heard this loud snoring noise," said Claire and she giggled a little.

"I don't remember letting you in the house at all last night," she said thoughtfully, putting the frying pan back on the stove. Gray frowned at her – she didn't remember a thing? Well that means last night was just a waste of time. Was she that bad at remembering what happened when she was half asleep? He sighed, but then smirked; two can play that game.

"I remember coming over here, but I forgot why .." lied Gray, not wanting to explain again why he had come over to Claire's house in the middle of the night. Claire's eyes looked at him from the corner of her eye, probably trying to figure out if he was lying or not. He tried to keep a straight face when she looked over at him. Gray sat down at her little table. She didn't seem to mind he was here.

"Whatcha makin'?" Asked Gray once he smelled this delicious smell in the air. Claire didn't turn around, but answered anyway. "French fries."

Gray smiled. "Can I have some?" He asked, not having had french fries in a long time. Ever since he had been here, he hadn't eaten any greasy food at all. This town was too healthy. Not even Kai sold french fries in his beach house. Claire took two plates from her cupboard and dumped the french fries from the frying pan on the plates. She put the pan in the sink, and took the plates in her hands, walking towards the table Gray was sitting at. She put a plate in front of him, and put the other one in front of herself as she sat down.

Gray smiled at her. "What?" Grinned Claire. "You thought I was just going to make food for myself and just let you watch me while I eat?"

Gray nodded, he grabbed a french fry from the plate and popped it in his mouth. It was delicious, crunchy and salty – just the way he liked it. Claire did the same, and ate the fries with just her hands – it was after all, fingerfood.

"So," began Claire, eating another fry. "Why were you sleeping in my house?" She asked casually.

Gray gulped down the fry in his mouth. Should he tell her what he was really doing here? Or should he just keep his mouth shut and pretend he was just as dumb as her when it came to remembering things? He really did not want to repeat himself from yesterday, it was already embarrassing enough for him. Why must he always feel so pressured to say what was really on his mind around Claire? She always seemed to put the both of them in weird situations. Not to mention awkward.

He realized Claire was still wearing his brooch on her overalls – it gave him a little smile. Claire's eyes blinked a couple of times, looking at him in an innocent way. It was torturing to see someone who was just asking a simple question, to be waiting for an answer that was probably not going to make much sense. Gray groaned on the inside – what to do!

"I think I remember letting you in last night .. " said Claire softly. No! No, she can't start remembering what happened last night!

"Really?" Said Gray nervously, trying to stuff his mouth with as many french fries as he could, to have an excuse for not talking.

Claire waved a french fry around in her face, trying to think hard. "I think you came here to say something."

**Busted.**

Gray's cheeks started to heat up during the discussion, and just now he realized his cap was still on the floor. _Damnit, I can't hide my face anymore!_ The blonde boy swallowed the fries hard, not wanting to explain himself again. Claire looked at him, waiting for him to say something, but he just couldn't bring himself to say anything at all. How could he? Yesterday was hard enough for him already, he can't explain it again in those awkward conversations.

"So, you don't want to tell me why you were here?" Said Claire quietly, looking down at her table. Great going Gray, now she's going to feel all sad and depressed. Why can you never have a normal conversation with her? He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his hand into a fist.

"Look," he snapped at her, which made Claire jump a little in her seat. He didn't mean to do that. Gray sighed and put his hand in front of his face, not wanting to show himself towards her. If he didn't want to blurt out why he was here, he needed to calm down and take a deep breathe; which is what he did.

"If you just wanted to sleep with me, you could have just said so," said Claire while fidgeting on her seat.

It took her awhile to realize that she had said the wrong thing entirely.

Gray's ears started to fill up with blood, his cheeks were flaming red and his brain had an utter shutdown.

_She did not just say that!_

"I-I didn't it mean it like that!" Squeaked Claire, blushing rather furiously herself. She sunk into her seat and let her hair cover her eyes. Gray couldn't comprehend anything anymore. All the blood rushing to his face had made him braindead – he was sure of that. Claire had killed him with her more-than-awkward-conversations. He wasn't surprised that this was going to happen eventually.

"I meant.." said Claire very softly. "If you wanted to sleep .. here .. in this house .. not _with_ me .. you could say so .." She mumbled the last part, and Gray realized her face was just as red as his.

Both of them sat perfectly still in their own seats as the minutes ticked by. Neither of them could stop blushing, and neither of them could bring themselves to say anything. After a while, Gray's face started to return to his normal colour, and finally he could think a little bit more straight. Not that he wanted to think straight anyway. Claire was sitting opposite of him, still having that blush on her face.

The blonde boy sighed.

The blonde girl sighed along.

Gray's eyes shot up to meet Claire's eyes.

They both smiled at each other in silence, and then just started chuckle, which ended up in both of them laughing together. Gray grinned at Claire, who had gotten back the normal colour in her face. Both of them suddenly felt a lot more relieved than just minutes ago.

"You're really something, Claire," stated Gray.

The girl said nothing, but instead offered him a small grin. Gray's silver brooch sparkled right along with Claire's face. They sat in silence for a few minutes until Claire chuckled.

"I think you need a shower, Gray," she said innocently. Gray raised his arm and sniffed his armpit. Disgusting! He was still wearing his clothes from yesterday, after working hard with Claire in the field. He really did need one.

"Yeah I think you're right. I'll head back to the inn and take a shower then." He was just relived he didn't have to explain himself as to why he had stayed the night.

Claire stood up and shook her head. "Just take a shower here, there's nothing wrong with my shower."

Gray frowned. "I need new clothes."

"I'll wash yours real fast when you take a shower then," said Claire with a smile. Gray frowned even more – she really just wanted to have him take a shower here, huh? He sighed deeply and stood up to walk towards her bathroom door.

"Fine," he said begrudgingly, dragging his feet across the floor to disappear in the bathroom. He made very sure to lock the door behind him while he undressed. Gray took off his clothes, gathered them, and opened the door real fast to throw out his clothes. Claire mumbled a small 'thank you' before he slammed the door close again.

He locked the door securely and took a shower in her tiny bathroom. He did _not_ want an awkward run-in with Claire while he was butt-naked. The blonde got a little chill as he stood naked in the white bathroom. Gray's eyes looked around her shower; there was some girly stuff here and there. Tons of shampoo and other stuff that he had never seen. The boy stepped into the shower and turned on the knob, getting water out of the big showerhead.

"Ahh!" Gray let out a little girly scream as he pushed himself up towards the wall; not wanting the ice cold water to hit him.

He could hear Claire stifle her laughter from outside. "Sorry! It takes a while for the water to heat up!"

Sure, she had forgotten to mention that, the little witch. Gray stood there against the cold wall, waiting for the water to heat up. The water started to become nice and warm, so he pushed himself away from the wall and started to finally cleanse himself from that awful smell his body was omitting. He took a random bottle that was on a little rack, hanging from the shower door. He scrunched his nose at the pink bottle, wondering what it was for. Gray dumped the contents in his hands and just started to put it on his hair, not really caring what it was for.

After maybe 10 minutes, he was finally done, and he smelled like a bunch of flowery stuff. Gray shook his head at the stuff Claire had in her bathroom, not really thinking that Claire could be so girly. He stepped outside the shower after turning it off and looked around for a towel. He opened some cupboards under the little sink – but there were no towels there. Gray's eyebrows lowered towards his blue eyes, as he continued looking further, while freezing his naked ass off. Gray looked and looked, but couldn't find a towel, and after standing naked, drenched in water, it was making him extremely cold.

_Fuck, where does she keep her towels?_

"Claire!" He yelled out. "Where are the towels?" He asked while he stood behind the door, hugging his body for warmth.

There was no reply.

"Claire?" Gray yelled out again, wondering why she didn't answer.

Still no reply.

"Claire, where are you!"

Again, no reply.

Gray groaned out loud – where was she! He did not want to risk getting outside this bathroom naked and look for a towel. Gray had enough experience to just _know_ that once he stepped outside of this door, Claire would magically pop up and see him naked. It was some sort of destiny to put him and Claire in the most awkward situations ever. Just thinking about it made Gray's face heat up. His eyes suddenly widened as he thought about something; what if Claire was playing a prank on him and ran away with his clothes, so that he was basically stranded in her house .. _naked_.

The naked boy started pounding on the door. "_Claiiiirreee_!" He yelled again, this time more desperately. The water on his body started to trail down his body, making him shiver each time it did. He leaned his head against the door; utterly confused right now. His ears perked up when he heard a door open. "Claire?" He asked.

"Yeah?" He heard the familiar voice of Claire respond, she sounded out of breath. Relief washed over his naked body as he smiled.

"Can I get a towel and my clothes?" He asked.

"Yeah, I was just going to give them to you – here, open the door," she said, her voice sounding very close, and he figured she was standing in front of him. Gray stepped back and unlocked the door, opening it by a little and sticking out his hand. He felt some soft cloth touch his fingers, so he grabbed it, pulled back his arm, and locked the door again.

Gray dried himself off in lightning speed, and got dressed in the same manner. Within 2 minutes, he was dry, and dressed. He sniffed his clothes; they were clean, but still a little bit wet. Gray shrugged, as long as he didn't smell like an ogre he was fine. He opened the door to walk outside. He was met by the face of Claire, who was on her couch watching tv. She looked at him and sniffed the air.

"Roses and lilies," she stated. Gray quirked an eyebrow. "You took the roses and lilies scented shampoo," she giggled.

Was it that obvious? Gray shrugged and started walking towards her front door. He had enough of this little house. It seemed the longer he stayed, the more opportunities would present themselves to get Gray and Claire in situations he didn't even want to think about.

"Where are you going?" Asked Claire as she whirled her head around to look at him, her blonde hair swishing along with her movements.

"Come on, Claire," smirked Gray. "I'll let you meet my friend."

For some reason, he felt he had enough of embarrassing situations for these past days, so what better to do than watch someone else in his misery around Claire?

--

"Honestly Ann, you should be able to tell me at least _something_ about the new girl in town," begged the tanned boy named Kai, who was leaning over the counter inside of the inn. "I mean, this is a very small town – and someone should know something about her!"

The orange headed girl just plainly sighed as she washed the dishes, pretending Kai was a mere annoying fly, trying to get into everyone's business. Next to Kai was the shy Cliff, who had said nothing and just stood there, minding his own business. Poor Cliff was always pushed into the background whenever Kai was around him, she felt sorry for him.

"Come on Ann!" Said Kai, giving her the puppy-dog eyes look. Not that she could see when her back was turned towards him – but she knew him well enough to know he was pulling that trick again.

"Just give up Kai! We don't know that much about her anyway," said Ann as she started drying off the dishes and walking towards Cliff, who gave her a small shy smile.

"So Cliff, anything you want to drink?" She asked happily.

"Don't change subjects!" Yelled Kai outraged, pointing his finger towards Ann and quickly skipping towards them. "I need something! _Anything_!" He pleaded desperately.

Ann huffed at Kai, but answered him anyway. "Her name is Claire."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Just don't go around and flirt with her – she seems to be very reserved," said Ann as she poured a glass of milk for Cliff, who happily took the glass from her hands. She then continued to dry off some wet dishes, and turned her back towards Cliff and Kai.

Kai straightened up and coughed. "I'm not that kind of man, Ann," he said seriously.

Ann turned around and cocked her head sideways, trying to figure out what Kai was getting at. "Then what kind of man _are_ you?"

Kai leaned over the counter, planting his elbow on top of an empty plate and leaning his chin on his hand. His chocolate brown eyes looked at Ann in a very loving way. He turned his lips into a small pout and then opened his mouth; "_I'm charming_," he smiled and winked at her. To Cliff's utter surprise, Ann had blushed and turned back around again. The brunette himself couldn't believe it.

"Well if you see this Claire person, tell her to come by at my beach house!" Said Kai happily and he disappeared from the inn.

Before Kai could even reach his beach house, he was held up by bumping into someone else as he got out of the inn. The person smelled like roses and lilies. He stumbled back a little and cracked his eyes open to see who he bumped into; it was Gray.

"Yo!" Said Kai in a cheery voice, scrunching his nose at the scent. He then noticed that there was someone behind Gray.

Gray looked down on him, staring into his eyes, which made Kai actually a little uncomfortable. The someone behind Gray's back moved, and he saw a flash of blonde hair move around in the wind. Kai pushed Gray aside, and smiled brightly at the person who was behind Gray. It was a small girl, with light skin and long blonde hair. She looked totally out of place and a little uncomfortable. Kai walked up towards the girl and popped his face close to hers, examining the new girl in town. Before he could utter out a word though, he was taken aback by the girl's shriek.

"Ehh!" She yelled, pushing Kai back with the most force he had ever seen in a girl. "Personal space! Personal space!" She cried out. Kai stumbled back and crashed against Gray for the second time.

Gray behind him started to crack up and laugh. He knew Claire would eventually do something to embarrass Kai, but this quickly? That's priceless. "Don't worry Claire, this is my friend Kai I've been talking about, he's quite the ladies man, so don't pay attention to his flirting," said Gray with a smirk as Kai turned around and glared at him, probably embarrassed at his failed attempt at trying to be charming.

"Kai, this is Claire," introduced Gray and grinned at the girl who was now blushing a little at pushing his friend away.

"H-hi, sorry about that," said Claire shyly, shuffling her feet on the ground and looking up at Gray with her blue eyes.

"Now don't be shy!" Said Kai as he once more got up to Claire, and he linked his arm with hers. "I will show you the way to my beach house!"

Before Gray could even complain, or Claire for that matter, the girl was being dragged away by Kai towards the beach. Gray just followed behind them, eyeing Kai's interactions with Claire. He knew Claire was probably thinking what kind of drugs Kai was on, so he went to Claire's side and pulled her out off Kai's arms. She looked gratefully at him.

"Now, now Kai, what did she say," mocked Gray. "This girl needs her personal space, see?" Gray gestured towards Claire, who had hidden her face between her bangs, but she nodded anyway. She gave Gray a small smile as a thank you. After only a month, he already knew how Claire would feel around new people. Gray guessed it was because he would probably feel the same around Kai too the first time he met him. Kai merely nodded his face and continued his way to the beach.

When they arrived, Gray noted he hadn't been here, not since last year. It was a nice sunny day, the ocean looked calm and smelt salty like always. Claire stood there to watch the ocean's calm waves with a happy expression on her face. Gray smiled at her as she walked over towards the sea and looked at the water trying to reach to her feet.

"You know, I've never been here," said Claire as she turned towards Gray and smiled at him.

"Never!?" Said Kai outraged. He smacked his head in a playful manner. "Then you've been missing out on a lot of fun!" He said with one of his widest smiles. Yes Kai, everyone knows you love summer and the beach. Gray himself, found winters to be more fun. He loved the snow and cold.

Kai pointed towards his infamous beach house. "Look at the beauty, my darling that I haven't seen in so long," said Kai in a loving matter. Claire rose her eyebrows, but Gray merely shook his head and laughed, beckoning Claire to come with him as Kai started to walk towards his beach house. Al three entered the blue beach house and stepped into the little room full with tables and chairs.

"Ah, it's a restaurant?"Asked Claire as she let her fingers glide over the wooden tables.

Kai nodded and went behind the counter. "Yup! The best in Mineral Town!"

Gray snickered. "The _only_ one in Mineral Town, you dope."

"Shut up!" Said Kai and he stuck out his tongue. The tanned boy started to gather some kitchen utensils. "So, what can I make you today, my lovely friends?"

Gray rushed up towards the counter. "You know what my favourite is!" He said, not having had his favourite dish in oh so long.

Claire stood next to him and looked at Gray. "What's your favourite dish?"

"Baked corn," answered Kai for him. Gray just nodded and poked Kai in the chest with his finger. "Now go make it!"

Kai winked at Claire as he slapped Gray's finger away. "And you, Claire, what do you like?" He asked charmingly. Claire looked up at the ceiling, lost in her own thoughts. Both guys waited for her answer as she tried to think what she liked.

"Well, I like strawberries," she said. Gray rolled his eyes. "He means a real meal, not just some fruit."

Claire chuckled at herself. "Well I don't really have a favourite I guess."

Gray sat down at a table and opened his mouth with a smile. "You heard the girl! No dish for her, so make the baked corn!"

The girl quietly sat down at Gray's table and smiled at him; he seemed to really like baked corn.

While Kai was preparing Gray's meal, all three of them had conversations about food and other random stuff. Gray came to know that Claire liked most fruit, and hated most vegetables. Kai also exclaimed that he loved coming here in the summers, which to Claire responded that she doesn't really like the heat of the summer. Gray himself mentioned he loved winters because it was so cold. Claire had agreed with him, saying she loved staying inside and watching the snow fall outside of her window.

Kai baked and cooked, while the rest of them kept chatting with each other.

It had been awhile since Gray felt so comfortable and natural around Claire, just talking to her and sharing experiences. Of course, that's what he mainly liked about her; to be able to just talk about anything what was on his mind. He could survive their sometimes awkward conversations and situations, as long as nothing changed between their friendship. The blonde boy's eyes looked at Claire, and then looked at Kai. He smiled; he could finally, and truly say that he had friends. Not only that, Claire didn't seem to hate Kai, and Kai seemed totally taken away by Claire.

After half an hour, Kai proclaimed he was finally done with the meals. Gray sniffed up the scent from the baked corn, and was a little bit disgusted he could smell the roses and lilies still. Kai set down the plate of baked corn in front of Gray, and set a small bowl of strawberries in front of Claire, who smiled a 'thank you' at Kai. That smile of hers, Gray could really get used to seeing her smile like that all the time.

"It smells delicious, Kai," said Gray as he finally took a scoop from his baked corn, putting it in his mouth and favouring the taste.

Kai rubbed his finger on his chest, smiling slyly. "Of course, because it _is_ delicious." Gray couldn't help but agree.

Claire ate her strawberries, as Gray ate his baked corn.

After they were done, Gray and Claire stayed at Kai's beach house for several hours, talking about anything and everything. He was surprised Claire wasn't so quiet around new people, but that might also be because she was already familiar with Gray. Not until it was almost 5 pm, did Claire suddenly get up and shriek that she forgot to feed the chickens.

"Sorry! I'll see you tomorrow Gray, okay? Thanks for the meal Kai!" She said as she rushed out off the beach house. Gray sat there with a blank expression on his face. Kai sat down on Claire's empty seat and smiled cunningly at Gray.

"What?" Asked Gray, feeling Kai's eyes on his body.

"She's nice," Kai said, folding his fingers together while he leaned his elbows on the table.

"Yeah, she is," agreed Gray as he looked at the door where Claire had disappeared through. Suddenly, the room had lost its warmth and fun, all because the blonde girl had gone away. Kai stood up and put away the dirty dishes that he had left on the table all this time. He walked towards the sink and started to rinse them off. He smiled inside of himself.

"You know, I think she likes you," said Kai, waiting for a response from Gray.

The blonde whipped his head towards Kai. "If she didn't, she wouldn't be my friend," he said darkly. The brunette sighed and slumped his shoulders. "I mean, she _really_ likes you," he said once more.

Gray raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if you hadn't noticed, I tried to be as charming and flirty as I could,"

_He was?_

"And it had no effect on her."

_It didn't?_

"Because she spent most of her time talking to you," said Kai as he turned around to frown at Gray, wondering if the blonde boy finally got what he was saying.

"What do you mean?" Grunted Gray, lowering his eyebrows, not understanding what Kai was getting to. What did he mean by she liked him? Well of course she had to like him a little, otherwise they wouldn't have spent almost everyday together.

Kai slapped his forehead and sighed again. "I think she has a crush on you –" Gray's eyes widened, "or at least, _starting_ to have a crush on you."

"W-what!" Yelled out Gray while his cheeks started to get red. Gray laughed nervously under his breath and hid his eyes underneath his cap as he shook his head. "You're kidding, you silly Kai."

Claire, crushing on _him_? Yeah right. They were just friends!

Kai rolled his eyes. "Dude, I know these things, okay? I can tell if someone is starting to like someone _in that way_," he said seriously. While usually he would rely on Kai's experience, this time it was just outrageous.

Gray had only had a crush once in his life, and remembered it well and clear; he could not even talk around this person. Much less hold a conversation with her. He was shy and quiet every time his crush was around him. Crushes are for people who don't know how to even talk to their crush – Claire could obviously talk to Gray in an normal way. Even when Mary had confessed years ago she had a crush on him, he noticed that she was extremely shy and would barely say a thing to him whenever he was around her. Of course after she confessed, and Gray had told her he didn't like her back, she had gone even more shy and quiet ever since that time. It took her a year before she got over her crush for him.

Gray nodded firmly; people who have crushes will be shy and quiet around their crush. Claire wasn't shy around him, quite the opposite, she would tell him everything, and he would tell her everything.

"Dude, she doesn't have a crush on me – we're just friends, and you shouldn't mock her with something like that," said Gray seriously as he peered from underneath his cap to Kai, who was looking at him as if he didn't understand the words that were coming out of his mouth.

"Argh!" Groaned Kai. "It's like talking to a brick wall – just admit it, she likes you and you like her!"

_What the hell!_

Since when did it this turn around to him liking Claire!?

Gray stood up and shook his first towards Kai. "Stop pestering me about her! We're friends, and you shouldn't tell lies like that," threatened Gray. He could honestly say that Claire was a friend to him. Much more of a friend that understood him, than Kai could ever be to him.

"Fine, I'll leave you two alone in La-la-land," said Kai seriously and glared at Gray with his brown eyes. Gray returned the glare, and then stormed out of the beach house.

Kai had never pissed him off this much. Usually he was a great guy that he could mess around with, but this time it was only Kai that did the messing. Gray walked across the beach and looked down at the sand; Claire's tiny footsteps were still printed in it. The sun had set and it was getting darker and colder. Gray didn't care as he started to walk away from the beach.

How could Kai honestly think that Claire had a crush on him? Or him having a crush on Claire? He's had a crush before, he knew how it felt – and he didn't feel it around Claire. He wasn't shy around Claire (unless she would get him into an awkward situation again), or quiet – he was just himself around Claire. That means she was a friend, and he didn't have a crush on her. Gray nodded his head firmly as he stared in front of him and made his way to the inn.

He stood in front of the big doors from the inn as he lost himself in his thoughts again.

What if Kai was right? Gray was a 100 certain that he didn't have a crush on Claire, but he wasn't certain if Claire didn't .. He didn't want to ruin a friendship this great, not with Claire crushing on him. He knew what happened to his meek friendship with Mary once she had told him she had a crush on him; it dwindled down into nothingness and they both stopped seeing each other, or talking to each other.

Gray didn't want that to happen with Claire, he liked being around her. He liked talking to her, he liked doing things with her, he liked joking around with her, he liked fooling around with Claire, and damn it – he liked the way she could embarrass him without doing anything! He did not want that to end .. not when he had finally found a good, nice, and true friend .. He didn't want to lose that Claire.

Gray sighed as he let his head fall down to look at the ground.

Damn Kai, now this would plague his mind all night long.

Then he decided, he might as well ask Claire. He turned on his tail and went to Claire's farm, hoping to catch her in her house and ask her if she has a crush on him. Then she would laugh, punch him on the arm, and deny any possibility that she has a crush on him. Gray smiled; yes, that's what would happen. During this dark night, Gray marched his way towards Claire's farm. When he arrived, he saw Claire's house omitting light, so he walked up to her house and firmly knocked on her wooden door. A thought crept into the back of Gray's mind.

_What if she says she does have a crush on __me?_

Gray shook his head, his blonde locks falling into his eyes; impossible. He heard shuffling noises from inside the house.

_What if she really likes me__ that way?  
_

Gray frowned, waiting for Claire to open the door.

_What if she admits she likes me__, what will I say?_

Gray started to suddenly think this wasn't such a good idea anymore.

_What if she gets crushed once I tell her I don't like her?_

The nerves started to boil up in Gray's body as he gritted his teeth. The doorknob turned.

_What if I ruin the friendship between us?_

The door opened and revealed a smiling Claire. "Hi, Gray," she said and welcomed him. "What are you doing here?" She asked, unknowing what was in store for her.

Gray scraped his throat. His nerves were going crazy and his heart's rhythm wasn't doing so well either.

Should he really ask her if she has a crush on him? Even though it doesn't seem like she does, what would happen if she answered yes? Whatever he was going to do, he knew he was going to ask her either way; Claire had a knack of forcing the truth out of him. Claire's smile stayed on her face as she cocked her head to the side, waiting for the blonde boy to explain himself. His blue eyes looked at the silver brooch pinned on her overalls, thinking maybe she was wearing it because she liked him…Gray swallowed hard and decided he should say it.

"Claire," he started.

"Hmm?"

"Do you have a crush on me?"

…

"W-what?"


	9. Revealing Truths

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** Sorry for the cliffy from last chapter, and sorry again for this cliffhanger which is even worse. Now come on people, I still want constructive reviews (thank you monkeygirl for at least trying)! Tell me what I should improve on, what I'm overdoing. Is the pace too slow, or too fast. Blah things like that.

Also, beware the offensive language in this chapter.

**Chapter 9 – Revealing Truths**

**--**

Gray felt he had never been this blunt in his life. He didn't notice that his face was red, nor did he notice that his hands were balled up into fists, he didn't even he notice that his body was riddled with nerves and his heartbeat was going too fast. Gray didn't notice a thing about that stuff, as his eyes were only focused in the blonde haired girl standing in front of him; Claire. All he noticed was that Claire's face shot red extremely fast too. Her blue eyes were widened, her cheeks were so red that it looked painful, and her pink lips were trembling with nerves.

He didn't notice that his body was trembling too.

"W-what?" She had managed to squeak out.

Gray scraped his throat and put his hands in his pocket, refusing to look her in the eye as he awaited her answer. What was she going to say? Was she going to say no? Or would it be yes? Neither of those answers looked appealing to him at the moment, and Gray realized he made a big mistake in asking Claire if she had a crush on him. He should have just ignored his thoughts and left it at that – that damn Kai! Why did he have to say such outrageous things to him!

Claire stayed quiet, despite her mouth being half open. She stood in her doorway, leaning slightly against the wooden frame. Gray refused to lift up his head to look at her though. He didn't know who was more uncomfortable; him or Claire. All that mattered right now was a yes or no answer, and he was desperately clinging to every breath Claire took, awaiting her answer.

"T-that's a very random question…" she had finally said.

Gray's heart starting pounding faster; she hadn't answered the question. Was she avoiding it?

Claire stood up a little bit more straight and finally looked into Gray's eyes, even though he was completely avoiding to look back at her. The blush on her cheeks started to finally fade away, and Gray knew she was going to answer him right now. Instead though, she stepped sideways and gestured Gray to come inside her house.

_Holy shit, that can't be good._

Gray trembled slightly as he took a step forward to her doorway, wondering what was in store for him once he entered her house. A fleeting thought entered his mind that said just to make a run for it – but Gray knew his legs wouldn't agree with him. They were feeling like blocks of stone, but they didn't seem to mind entering Claire's familiar house. The blonde boy avoided Claire's look as he stepped inside of her house. Claire closed the door behind him, and turned around to face him.

He could feel his heartbeat loud and clear in his ears; it was now or never. She was going to answer him, and for a second, Gray didn't want to know the answer anymore. He wanted to go back to being friends, where it was all familiar and fun. He didn't want Claire to answer him and tell him she had a crush on him, it would ruin their friendship. Nor did he want Claire to say no, it would make him look like an idiot and Claire would probably suspect that _he_ had a crush on her. Gray swallowed loudly as he saw Claire advancing on him, getting closer to him with each step.

She reached out with her hand, lifting it up to reach his face. Her fingers touched his cheek with a tender touch. Gray didn't know why, but he began to blush even more, if _that _was even possible. Now he really didn't want to know what Claire was going to say anymore. Shit, now he was trapped inside her house, and he couldn't run away anymore! Claire dragged her fingers across his reddened cheek, and she smiled a genuine smile at him which made him suspect the worst. His body was being trampled with nerves and anxiousness, coming at him wave after wave like a big storm.

"Gray," she said in that soft voice of hers, retrieving her hand from his face.

_Fuck, she's going to say she likes me, isn't she?_

Gray's heartbeat was now for sure, out of its rhythm and Gray wondered if he could possibly die with all that blood in his face. Claire opened her mouth to speak, and Gray swore that his heart suddenly stopped beating so loud that he could hear Claire's voice crystal clear. Her blue eyes sparkled as she looked into his own eyes.

"Yes."

That single word being uttered from her mouth had a much more bigger impact on Gray than he thought it would do. It echoed in his head as his body started to weaken from the loss of blood in certain areas. His knees felt weak, and his arms felt like dead weight – all the blood was now in his face. The blonde girl, standing in front of him, had just answered a definite 'yes' to his question. Her answer, still repeating inside of his head over and over again, had almost made him piss his pants. Emotions that he couldn't even name went coursing through his body and mind, making him more confused and nervous than ever. He couldn't believe it, he was in denial. He just couldn't believe it – maybe it wasn't too late to pretend he didn't hear her or something…To just cock your head to the side, pretend you didn't hear her and RUN AWAY!

Gray's body shook as he repeated it over and over again, thinking it was too late to do anything about it now. Claire, as it seems, had a crush on Gray. She had said yes, to his question – she had a crush on him. Claire had a crush on him!

_Oh, motherfu-_

"Gray, I have been crushing on you ever since that day you helped me in the mine," said Claire mysteriously.

Gray couldn't believe it – he didn't want to believe it! _Stop talking! Stop! Stop! Stop!_

"With that sexy body of yours lifting up that heavy hammer and smashing those rocks into pieces.." Claire continued.

"I couldn't take my eyes off of you since that day!" She giggled.

_Wait, what?_

_Giggling?_

_Sexy body?_

Gray frowned hard; what was she getting at.

"Silly Gray, what made you think I have a crush on you?"

Now, after the pieces started to fall in its place, Gray couldn't be more embarrassed. Clearly Claire had been faking it, and Gray had stupidly fallen for her lies. She didn't have a crush on him! She was just toying with him, the evil wench. Now he felt even more awkward asking her if she had a crush, and actually believing her when she said yes! Gray's eyes glanced towards the ground as his face filled up with all the blood in his body again. How could she toy around with something as serious as this?

Claire's eyes grew bigger as she examined the red face of Gray. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to mislead you!" She shrieked, wondering if Gray hated her now.

The blonde girl was just playing with him all along .. For some reason, Gray felt relieved that Claire didn't like him that way, but then again .. in the back of his mind, there was this nagging feeling that he couldn't shake off.

"I'm sorry Gray, I had no idea.." said Claire in a mumbling voice, as she started getting red in her face too.

_Huh, what's Claire going on about?_

"I didn't know you liked me, Gray, I'm sorry."

_Huh!? Where did she get that from!?_

"I don't like you!" He blurted out in a loud voice.

The two blondes watched each other in silence. Claire shuffled on her spot uncomfortably, while Gray hid his eyes underneath his cap. Heartbeats could be heard from both young adults; they were both dealing with something on the inside. Gray just couldn't shake off this nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach; she was just joking with him. Then again, he was stupid enough to ask her this question anyway. Gray decided, after assaulting her with such a question, to tell her why he decided to ask her something like that.

"Kai told me you liked me," began Gray and scratched the back of his head awkwardly. Claire listened.

"I told him, 'no, we're just friends'." The girl nodded in agreement. "But then I started thinking; what if you really do like me? I don't want to lose our friendship .."

"So instead of just ignoring it, you actually _asked_ me if I liked you?" Said Claire with a playful snort. Gray realized he had been acting stupid, and he should have just ignored Kai's claims – but there was just something in his head that wanted to get a straight answer. It wasn't one of his brightest ideas, but he did it anyway. _Stupid Gray. Stupid, stupid and stupid._

"Yeah, I know, it's stupid," said Gray as he shook his head.

Claire flipped her hair out of her face and stared at Gray, lost in her thoughts.

"What if.." She began. "What if I said yes for real? What would you do?"

_Like hell if I know!_

Gray didn't know what he would do if she said yes, he didn't even know what he was going to do after Claire had jokingly said yes. How should he know what he was going to do? It was all so confusing and sudden and so random and weird. Claire was one of the most confusing females he had ever encountered in his life. Not that he had met a lot.

"I don't know," said Gray truthfully, biting his lip and glaring at Claire. What was she getting at anyway? There could be a lot of 'what ifs' and he still wouldn't know what he would do in that situation. He was already glad that Claire didn't have a crush on him, otherwise this situation would have been even more embarrassing and awkward. That's not something Gray wanted to imagine, or experience – ever.

After a thick silence, Gray coughed in his hand and hid his face under his cap, nodding towards Claire. "Well, that's all I needed to know," said Gray awkwardly. "I'm going home now."

He started to walk towards the door, turning away from the blonde girl. Gray then grabbed the doorknob and turned it around; opening the door and stepping outside in the dark night. Claire hopped behind him, holding her door for support as she looked at him. Gray turned his head to look at her, waiting for her to say something.

"Do you hate me?" She asked sincerely.

Gray raised both his eyebrows. "No. Why?"

"So, you still want to be friends with me?" Asked Claire.

The blonde boy nodded his head.

Claire gave him a small smile as she dragged her fingers across the doorpost. "You're really something too, Gray." She had said, giving Gray a blush on his cheeks. He grunted deeply, turned around, and walked away from her farm.

When he was at the inn, he heard two different kinds of snores, probably belonging to Kai and Cliff. Gray glared at the dark figure of Kai laying on the bed. He was still pissed off at Kai, and luckily he was asleep so he didn't have to deal with him. As he got undressed and went to bed, Gray couldn't help but replay the incidents of today over and over in his head.

Did today go as he wanted it to? Definitely not. Did he get the answer he wanted to hear? In a way, yes. Gray thought hard and long about this certain thing that was bugging him. While he was waiting for an answer from Claire, for some reason, he didn't want to hear it anymore. It bugged him. A lot. He didn't know why he was suddenly feeling so nervous and anxious for both answers. Even after Claire had already said that she doesn't like him that way, Gray still had this bugging sensation in the back of his mind.

Something just wasn't adding up.

The blonde rolled over in his bed, still lost in his own train of thoughts. What he just couldn't place his finger on, was that once Claire had jokingly said yes, he felt this range amount of emotions soaring through his body. It was as if everything went in slow motion when she said that. Gray squeezed his eyes shut as he sighed loudly. How would he ever be able to sort through his emotions when he wasn't really an emotional guy?

What in the world was Gray becoming to? He couldn't believe that this simple girl, Claire, could awaken so many different things in his body. From embarrassing the hell out of him, to giving him boners, to making him feel things he had never felt, to making him laugh along with her. What was really going on between him and her? Was there something he didn't notice about her? Or is it just a figment of his imagination? Gray didn't even know what to think anymore, it was all so confusing.

His life became confusing ever since he met Claire.

Gray guessed that was a good thing. His life before Claire wasn't really all that special. With him working badly every day at the blacksmith, not having many friends, not having any self-esteem. Then of course there was the fact that Gray himself found his life kind of boring. Just the same thing every day over and over again. Work at blacksmith, get yelled at by his gramps, go back to the inn, talk a little bit with Cliff and go to sleep – then repeat. Then he met Claire, and everything changed. From his daily routines, to affecting his work at the Blacksmith, to having more things to look forward to in his life. A smile appeared on his lips as he thought about the things that were changed just by meeting Claire. She was really something, a good friend, even though she could be weird sometimes.

That still didn't solve his problem though.

He knew that there was something during his conversation with Claire that he didn't know about. Gray rolled over again and continued thinking. Why had he felt so nervous when he was waiting for her answer? It's not like he wanted to have her say yes, that's ridiculous, but he also didn't really want her to say no either. Why were both answers so terrifying to him? He wanted Claire to remain his friend, so he wanted to have her say 'no', but in the back of his mind, he wondered what would happen if she had truly said 'yes'.

Like Claire had asked, what would he have done?

Now that he thought about it, why did Claire ask that anyway?

Did she want to know what he would have done if she did indeed have a crush on him? Why would she want to know, it's not like she did have a crush on him..

Unless…

Unlesssssssssss…

Gray sighed, he couldn't finish his sentence. He wasn't good at figuring out what people felt, what they meant and what they want or whatever. He was just a simple guy, who just couldn't handle all those things at once, so it left him confused. Terribly confused – he would be better off just not thinking about it. So while trying to clear his mind of any thoughts, that's exactly what Gray did; he stopped thinking about it, as it was giving him a headache. Not soon after did he finally fall asleep.

The following morning, Gray had to get back to the blacksmith again. The blonde boy arrived at the blacksmith and went to work. He ignored his grandfather as he worked in silence, working on a tool that needed repairing. Gray's mind was elsewhere though, as he had begun thinking of yesterday's events again.

Yesterday had really been .. awkward to say the least. Also a little bit revealing. Gray snickered at himself; this time _he_ had been the one to put both Claire and him in a weird/awkward/embarrassing situation. Oddly, that felt strangely satisfying to return the favour of what Claire had done to him so many times – but now was not the time to dwell on those sort of things. He had better things to think about, mainly, what he would have done if she had said yes.

Claire's words echoed through his head again, replaying the event when she had indeed said yes to his question (but was joking of course). What would he have done after he had recovered from his shock? Gray honestly didn't know what he would have done, or even thought after she had really said yes .. Why was he making such a big deal out of a _what if_ situation anyway? She had already denied the possibility of her having a crush on him, so it doesn't make sense to keep wondering what would have happened if she had a crush on him. It's not like he wanted to think about Claire having a crush on him. The doorbell disturbed him out of his thoughts and he whirled around to see who it was. It was Claire of course, delivering her usual ores at 10 AM sharp. That girl was almost never late.

"Hey," said Gray as he tipped his cap towards her.

She seemed different today.

Claire smiled weakly. "Morning Gray," she said back and proceeded to talk to his grandfather, who happily engaged in small talk with her.

He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was different about her.

The little blonde emptied her rucksack on the counter and gave Saibara her ores. The old geezer paid her with cash again, which she happily took. Before Gray could even talk to Claire, she had disappeared from the Blacksmith in a flash. He stared at the closed door for a while. After a long silence, Saibara decided to talk to Gray.

"Son, when are you going to get married?" Asked Saibara under his breath with a threatening tone.

Gray glared at his grandfather's bald head. "That is none of your business!" He shouted back.

What the hell was this old fart thinking, it was none of his business if he was ever going to get married or not. Gray didn't even want to think about 'marriage' when he wasn't even in a relationship with someone, better yet, he didn't even like someone! He huffed at his gramps and turned away to return back to work.

When he was done with his work, for some reason, Gray didn't feel like checking up on Claire right now, so he finished up and returned to the inn, where he spent all day in his room and slept. As he woke up to begin a new day again, he felt like seeing Claire again, and was soon greeted at the blacksmith by the flash of straw-blonde hair of Claire as she entered during her usual deliveries. She closed the door and looked at Gray, saying hi – but that's it. Her eyes never left his body, but Gray didn't say a word, as Claire kept her words to herself too.

She awkwardly shifted on her spot, as her blue eyes stared at Gray's work clothes.

He didn't know what to say either, the words weren't coming out of his mouth, nor were they forming in his head; he was out of anything to say to her at the moment.

Claire slumped her shoulders and slowly turned away to give the ores to his grandfather, and left the building, leaving Gray alone for the whole day.

What was that all about?

The blonde furrowed his brow as he thought; was she avoiding him? Was it something he did? Was it yesterday's conversation? Is she mad at him? Did he do something? So many questions plagued Gray's mind as soon as Claire had closed that door. Did she not want to see him anymore right now? Was it too embarrassing for her to talk to him right now? Should he give her some space? It seemed Claire didn't want to talk to him, so he decided he would leave her alone for the rest of the day. Maybe that would help.

The next day was no different though.

She'd come in, say hi, deliver the ores, and disappear like magic. It irked Gray a lot. Why was she suddenly avoiding him? Did she not want to talk to him again after that one conversation? Or was she secretly torturing him with one of those silent treatments or something? What was she doing? Gray just couldn't keep track of his questions anymore, so he figured that Claire had decided to ignore him. It was not something that Gray liked, and he hoped Claire would soon get over herself, so he could return to being friends with her. He really wondered why she was ignoring him.

Yet, even the day after that, nothing changed. She would ignore him, as he would ignore her back, thinking it served her right for ignoring him in the first place. They hadn't even exchanged complete sentences anymore, just simple greetings and that was it. It was starting to piss Gray off in the way Claire behaved around him now. Did she enjoy seeing him squirm like that? He did not like ignoring Claire, and he did not like to be ignored himself, much less by Claire. Gray didn't want this to continue, but as long as Claire would keep it up, he would return the favour.

For the next couple of days, he had only seen Claire during her visits to the blacksmith at 10 AM. Gray hadn't sought her out, and neither did Claire try to look him up in the inn. They would only say hello and good morning before she would disappear again and return the next day. For some reason, it agitated Gray that he felt like Claire was avoiding him. Why was she avoiding him, and why was he doing the same thing? It was all so confusing and so pointless, he just wanted it to stop already.

At a certain point Gray just couldn't keep it in himself anymore after the 7th day of Claire not talking to him in a normal manner. She hadn't even looked him in the eye that day in the blacksmith, so Gray finally got fed up with this stupid ignoring game, and stormed towards her farm when he was done with work. Who does she think she is! Thinking that ignoring would be all so awesome, and not even looking at him was even cooler. How could she do that?

Gray arrived at the farm angrily and marched towards her house. "Claire!" He yelled out in rage, pounding on her door.

No one answered the door, so he kept on pounding the door. "Claire!" He yelled out again, a little louder this time.

"Geez Gray, leave the door alone," said a voice from behind him.

Gray turned around and saw Claire in her field, holding her watering can. Well now he felt stupid. Alright Gray, let's approach this with as much dignity as you have. Control your temper.

"Why have you been ignoring me!" He growled through his teeth.

_Nice dude, nice, __excellent approach. _

Claire blinked at him, staring at him for a second before she lowered her eyebrows. "_Me_? _You've_ been ignoring _me_!" She shouted back, throwing the watering can on the ground and placing her hands on her hips.

"No, I haven't!" He said back childishly.

"Yes, you have!" Replied Claire with as much of a childish tone as he had.

"You were the one that didn't talk to me!" Hissed Gray at her, pointing his thick index finger at the small frame of Claire.

"You were the one that decided to not come visit me anymore!" Retorted Claire.

"So _I_ have to be the one who always has to visit you? Why can't _you_ come to the inn!"

"There are two other guys in your room, I don't want to disturb their privacy!" She growled.

"That's a lame excuse and you know it!" He growled back.

"Well, you've been sprouting off nothing but lame excuses!"

"No, I haven't!" He said childishly.

"Yes, you have!" Replied Claire.

"Nu-uh!"

"Ya-ha!"

"Well, you suck!"

"How dare you! You suck too!"

Both of them were out of breath with the insults they had been throwing at each other, and it just kept going back and forth. He'd say something, and she would say something back, which to Gray had to say something nasty about again. It just didn't seem to stop in this endless and pointless argument. Gray could care less about it at the moment though, he was at his boiling point. Why it had turned into this childish showdown, he had no clue, all he knew was that this girl could get his blood boiling. She could do all sorts of things with his blood flow, _and it pissed him off!_

"You piss me off!" He blurted out mindlessly.

Claire gritted her teeth, but finally stood her ground, calming herself down in a way Gray couldn't. She closed her eyes, trying to control her flaring temper that was just as bad as Gray's. He had never seen this side of hers before, this raging mad Claire who could be just as stubborn as he could be. Her eyes shot open again and she glared at him.

"After you asked me that question," she said and caught Gray's attention with the word 'question'.

"I figured you didn't want to face me so soon after that, so I gave you some space," she explained.

"I just couldn't believe what you did after that day though!" She then burst out, her eyes filling with a fiery passion.

"You could drop me just like that, as if not talking with me – _being with me_ – was as easy as breathing to you." Her raging words were now reduced to mere hiccups and sniffs.

"As if you didn't mind not having me around anymore," she said with a sniff, and Gray knew that Claire had begun to cry. For now, he could care less, as Claire's words were so far from the truth that it cut his heart deep like a sharp blade.

"How dare you think I'm just an insensitive jerk like that!" Yelled Gray at her as he shook his fist. He started to walk up to her, which frankly, scared the shit out of Claire when he was so angry looking.

"You think I don't care!?" He spit out in disgust, taking a step closer to the crying Claire.

"You think I wanted us to not talk to each other?" He said more quietly as he approached her trembling frame, feeling sorry for looking like such a raving mad man.

"I thought you were ignoring me, so I ignored you back," Gray said as he stopped right in front of her. Her tears were falling from her eyes onto her cheeks, but she stared at Gray in a strong manner, as if she hated the fact that she was crying right now.

"You jerk! Why would you do such a thing!?"

"I don't know!" Gray answered truthfully. "I do things around you that _I_ can't even explain!"

Claire wiped her tears away with her hands and walked closer to Gray, so that they were only a feet apart. "Well you make me do things too," she snapped defensively, as if he couldn't use that as an excuse for his actions. Gray stared at her in silence, his anger having finally cooled down, but his blood flow still storming throughout his body.

"I do _**not**_, want to stop talking to you," he said firmly. Claire had finally stopped crying, and stared back at Gray.

"I do _**not**_, find it easy to not be with you," he continued, noticing the way Claire's eyes grew bigger with every word he said. He then lowered his eyebrows and grimaced at what he was about to say.

"Fuck it Claire, I fucking _missed you_ – you happy now?"

Claire had sneaked up to him while he had been talking, and she had clasped her tiny hands on his jacket, pulling herself closer to his chest. Her blonde hair and her face was pressed up against Gray's beating heart. She sniffed a couple of times, but didn't talk. Gray sighed as he relaxed his body, finding it oddly comforting that Claire was holding him. He closed his eyes and held Claire's back with his own arms, resting it on her waist. Her body snuggled closely to his, and he rested his chin on her blonde hair.

"I missed you too," said Claire, the sound of her voice being muffled by his jacket.

He pulled her closer to him – he couldn't believe what an idiot he had been.

Playing stupid games, ignoring her, and hurting her so much. Claire had every right to think what an asshole he was, and he hoped that she could forgive him for being so childish. Gray just didn't want to lose her. He didn't want to stop talking to Claire, to stop being around her, to stop being happy with her. The blonde sighed inside of himself as he thought he had almost ruined the best friendship he has ever had. Claire hiccupped in his jacket, and Gray decided it was time he apologized. She pulled back from him slightly, lifting up her head to look him in the eye. He never really noticed that Claire had deep, sapphire coloured eyes. They were so close to each other's face that he was sure Claire could count the faded freckles on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry," they both said in unison. Then they both said nothing and nodded to each other. Claire went back to resting her head on his chest again. Gray didn't mind, as he continued to keep his arms around her waist. Both of their bodies started to sway a little in a natural and instinctively way. He could feel Claire moving her head a little as she tried to speak.

"Gray .. oh Gray," she sighed deeply. Gray said nothing, but listened.

"You have no idea how much influence you have over me," she continued, having her eyes closed and still resting against his beating heart. Gray still said nothing.

"You can make me say the silliest things, act in the most silliest ways.."

Gray continued to hold her as he listened to her soft voice. "You have no idea.." She finished softly. Gray snorted, getting some of her hair stuck to his face, which he ignored.

"Yeah, well, you're the only person who seems to be able to know exactly what buttons to push to control my blood flow," he replied, rocking her body along with his. He was silent for a few seconds before he decided he should at least admit it too.

"You also .. have a strong influence over me," he admitted. "I never know how I'm going to act around you, seeing as you bring the best and worst out of me." Gray prided himself at wording his thoughts so nicely, he should win an award for that. He could feel Claire's lips turn into a small smile. They stayed together like that for a while, just holding each other close and slowly rocking their bodies along with the wind. Claire then felt it was time for her to say something.

"Hey Gray?" She asked.

"Hmm?"

She buried her face into his chest before she continued. "I didn't lie when you asked me that question."

For some reason, his heart was speeding up again. This girl really knew how to dictate what his red blood cells should be doing. He could feel Claire's hands gripping his jacket tightly.

"I just …" She said softly.

"Deliberately forgot …" She shifted her eyes.

"To mention that .." Gray's ears perked up.

"It wasn't .. _a crush_ .." Gray's heart sped up.

"That I have on you …" She pushed herself away from Gray and stared into his eyes.

"It's something else."


	10. Two Confessions

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** I bet you all hated me for that last cliffhanger. Hopefully all of your questions will be answered in this long awaited confession chapter. Also, I can finally show you why I had chosen the name Pretty Ore for this story! Before you think I ended the story, it's not done, yet anyway.

**Chapter 10 – **_**Two Confessions**_

**--**

Gray frowned as he sat on his bed in the inn.

He did that a lot, after that one day, frowning that is.

He frowned some more.

If he was going to keep this up, that frown would be imprinted on his forehead forever.

He lowered his eyebrows even more, if that was possible, so that his eyebrows touched his blue, confusing eyes.

"_Think about it."_ She had said.

He didn't even know what she meant.

_Think about it?_

Well, he'd been trying to for this past week. It just wasn't working. Think about what exactly? She hadn't been very specific, neither did she drop any clues or something. It was just:

"_It's something else. Think about it."_

Well Gray was absolutely horrible at thinking about something else! What the hell did something else mean anyway!? Couldn't Claire give him an instruction manual about how to think about something that's something else! It just confused him to no end as he kept repeating it over in his head. He couldn't deduct a logical conclusion – he never could when it involved Claire, she liked to avoid things like 'logic' and 'reason'. Instead, she sprouts off things like 'something else' and 'think about it'. At least she managed to make him think about something else every minute of the day.

It just didn't make sense.

Gray frowned again.

The blonde boy then started to think about rocks.

Rocks are very logical, they only have a few characteristics, so no one can ever be confused by a rock. A rock can fall to the ground – _logic_. A rock has a hard surface – _logic_. A rock feels very painful when thrown against someone's head – _reasoning_. Now see, rocks aren't confusing, they have things you can logically follow, and then deduct what's happening.

Claire had no logical flow in every vibe of her body, thus deducting on what was happening with her had no chance of ever succeeding. Instead, Gray was left confused, and his manly brain with his manly logic and reasoning just weren't applicable in this situation. Gray didn't know how to think like that most of the time, and Claire just loved to force him into those situations where he can't do anything but say nonsense most of the time.

Gray was beginning to think that rocks were a more valuable partner for a friendship than any kind of girl.

Gray frowned.

He sighed, and turned around to face Kai, who was getting dressed.

"Kai," he called out. The tanned boy turned around while putting on his shirt and cocked him an eyebrow. "Yo," he replied.

"Why are girls so confusing?" Gray asked with a roll of his eyes.

Kai snickered and shrugged, not really knowing why either. The blonde boy thought that Kai should at least know a lot about the opposite sex, so he figured he might as well ask him stuff. Then again, it's not as if Kai was an expert on Claire's personality, so he wouldn't offer that much advice anyway.

"Girl trouble, Gray? Again?" Kai asked with a sly smile on his face. "Let me guess – Claire?" Gray frowned again, was it that obvious?

The blonde sighed and leaned against the wall while he laid down on his bed. "It's been a week or so since she said that…"

Kai raised his eyebrows. "Said what?" So Gray has been lingering around with this knowledge for about a week, and hadn't told Kai at all? The brunette felt insulted that Gray hadn't shared this information with him right away.

"To think about it," said Gray in a defeated manner. "Think about what?"

"About something else," replied Gray.

"Huh?" Said Kai confused, to which Gray pointed his finger at him and nodded. "Exactly! I don't know what she means either!"

Kai inspected Gray carefully, was he joking with him, or just saying nonsense? "Sorry Gray, I think you're the one who's confusing right now," said Kai honestly with a frown on his face.

"Well ever since you said she might liked me, I asked her if she did –" Gray was cut off by Kai who had suddenly appeared next to his bed, shaking Gray by his shirt.

"**WHAT!?** You NEVER EVER ask a girl if she likes you! Not like that! Argh!" Kai said furiously, shaking Gray back and forth, and the blonde pushed Kai off of him.

"Well, why the hell not! You said she liked me!"

"Oh man – that doesn't give you the right to just blatantly ask her! Dear goddess Gray, no wonder you've been acting weird these past two weeks. You have probably destroyed that poor girl's confidence now!" Said Kai, feeling very sorry for Claire indeed. Gray's face heated up at the thought of him doing something to hurt Claire.

"That's not my fault!" Defended Gray himself – it wasn't completely his fault! He would have never asked if Kai had never mentioned something about the possibility that Claire might like him. It was all Kai's fault, that damn boy.

Kai slapped his hand in front of his face, all the while shaking his head. "Tell me, did she deny it?"

Gray nodded.

"Did she proceed to ignore you?"

Gray shyly nodded again.

"Did you two talk again?"

He nodded once more.

"Did she try and explain her feelings?"

It was eerie and creepy how accurate Kai was with his predictions. Kai sighed. "No wonder you're so confused and upset about all this. Dear goddess, I think you have got to be the biggest asshole ever."

"Hey!" Yelled Gray indignantly.

"And one of the most ignorant and oblivious one too." Gray growled through his teeth. "No need to insult me Kai, I've got enough on my mind as it is."

The tanned boy sat down on Gray's bed, looking apologetically at him. Gray clearly didn't know what was going on, and he had no idea how to fix what was wrong between Claire and him. It seemed as if Kai knew what was going on, but he wasn't making things any better aside from making Gray feel like shit.

"You know," began Kai. "I think that Claire isn't the confusing one, I think it's just you – she seems to be acting pretty straight forward."

"I'm not the confusing one!" Gray said, not believing what his friend was uttering from his mouth. Claire was the one that decided to always make situations so confusing and embarrassing. It wasn't him, he didn't do anything! It also wasn't like him and Claire were ignoring each other again, she pretended she didn't do anything that night and proceeded to be her old self again around him, which confused the hell out of Gray.

He never brought up the topic of her saying it was 'something else', because he really didn't know what was going on, so instead of trying to solve it, he remained silent and enjoyed the old friendship with Claire again. It's better to ignore that there's a problem and still be with each other, than to try and get to the bottom of this and end up not talking to each other for weeks.

"I think Claire has pretty much sorted everything out. You on the other hand, are confused about everything," said Kai thoughtfully. "It's almost funny how you can deny everything so blissfully .. But then again, it's none of my business."

Gray glared at him, what was he going on about? Claire had everything sorted out, and he's still confused about everything? What?

"Just think about it Gray."

_I don't want to think about it! That's why I'm asking you!_

"I have to leave now, I need to go to my beach house. Seriously though Gray, you're my friend, and I don't want to see you acting so stupid and ignorant. So think about Claire, will you?" With that, Kai disappeared from the inn.

Rage build up in Gray once he sat there alone, brooding in his thoughts. Kai wanted him to think about it, and Claire wanted him to think about something else. They really weren't helping him, it was confusing as hell. Especially for a guy who had the emotional range of a 3 year old. The blonde sighed deeply and got up to take his hammer and lantern. He figured he might as well knock some sense out of some rocks, maybe they know something ..

Gray left the inn for the mine. When he arrived at the old mine, he looked around to see most rocks being crumbled already. He figured he hadn't been here in a long time, and Claire had been making up for his absence, smashing every rock she could find. The blonde walked deeper into the mine, holding his lantern for light. When was the last time he had been here anyway? Gray tried to remember, and thought it was probably when he was mining with Claire or something.

He frowned.

_Claire .._

A crushing sound echoed throughout the cave as Gray landed his hammer on the rock, feeling the vibrations run through his body. Another jolt of vibrations went coursing through his body, and he kept on going, endlessly hammering his trusty tool on the solid surface of a rock. How he had missed destroying things for a while – it was good to be back in the mine. The rock split open, and he saw some silver. He smiled and proceeded to smash the rock to a bloody pulp.

When he took a break from his senseless smashing on rocks, Gray sat on a different rock and thought about what Kai and Claire had said.

First, it had been Claire who had said that instead of having a crush on him, it was something else, and he had to think about it. It really wasn't easy, and secondly, even Kai couldn't help him. Gray sighed and played around with his hammer while he sat there alone in the mine.

Why must everything be so complicated? Especially with Claire. He really couldn't think of anything she meant with 'something else'. Did she hate him? Or did she consider him like her older brother? Or did she want to become friends with benefits? Gray shuddered as he thought about that. He could crack his brain all day long, and still not know what Claire was talking about. The good thing about it was that Claire didn't ignore him. She pretended the conversation never existed in the first place, and continued looking him up and talking to him. Which of course, made Gray even more confused because he didn't know if Claire just wanted to forget about it all, or if she was waiting for an answer from him. Then again, she never really asked a question ..

Kai was the one who said he needed to think about Claire, so Gray, being all hopeless in all things, decided he should think about the blonde haired girl.

He frowned again.

_Okay, let's think about Claire._

_.. I'm thinking about Claire .. Wondering about Claire … She has long blonde hair .. and I just rhymed that last part. __**Great.**_

How was he supposed to know what Kai meant with thinking about Claire!? Angrily, he grabbed his hammer and started smashing it against a big rock.

_Claire is a girl._

**Smash.**

_Claire has nice blonde hair._

**Smash.**

_Claire is nice and weird._

**Smash.**

_Claire is my__ friend._

**Crack.**

_Claire is funny._

**Crack.**

_Claire is fun to be with._

**Crumble.**

_Claire is pretty._

**Crumble.**

_Claire is …_

**SMASH.**

Gray stared at the broken rock he had been smashing. It was all split up into hundreds of little pieces; he had been overdoing it by just a little. There were also traces of this gem-like substance. He looked in the middle of the broken pieces and saw pieces of this blue-like ore; radiating a little bit of light. He rose his blonde eyebrows as he bend down to examine the blue pieces that were scattered about. He touched one of the blue shards, that was eliminating this faint blue colour. Gray had never seen this ore before in his life; he didn't even know what it was.

It was a crystal-like blue ore, that somehow glowed with its own light source, making it look like it was a piece of the moon. Gray scooped it up in his hands, it was glowing a nice light-blue colour. The crystal was see-through, yet he couldn't look through it, because it was shining with a blue light. Gray smiled at it; it was pretty.

It reminded him of Claire, of her eyes.

He picked up the rest of the shards and bagged it in his pocket. Gray kept one of the shards in his hand as he inspected it. The blue really reminded him of Claire's blue eyes. The ore wasn't a sapphire, not when it glowed blue like that. It was special, and it looked quite pretty to his eyes. The blonde smiled slightly, feeling as if he was staring right into Claire's eyes. He felt the need to show this to Claire. The new ore would also be good for forging new stuff that he wanted to do. Maybe a nice necklace for Claire. Yeah, she would like that.

He clasped the shard tightly in his hand, staring at it intensively.

Was it normal to have recognized your friend's eyes in an ore?

..Then proceed to say that it's pretty?

Was it even normal to think a lot about a friend like Claire? Gray put the last shard in his pocket and got up, staring at his lantern.

Gray realized, that even without deliberately thinking of this certain blonde girl, she had this thing for randomly popping up in his mind without him even intending to. She was a lot on his mind, so much that he spent every day and night thinking about her. Kai didn't need to say he had to think about Claire, he already did so – naturally. Why he would think so much about her, he didn't know.

Gray sighed; was this really how much one would think of a friend?

Or was it a little too much? The blonde realized he had never thought of Kai, or Cliff this much in his life. Hell, he barely thought about them at all, not even giving his so called friends the time of day in his mind. That was supposedly normal, to Gray that is.

Then there was Claire.

Claire, the blonde haired farmer girl, who he couldn't stop thinking about.

About all the situations she kept bringing them in, how they would laugh together afterwards. How she would make him feel like hugging her was one of the most natural things in the world – even if he loathed hugging people. She would make him confused about stuff she said, messing up the entire day for Gray because he couldn't stop thinking about it until it was solved; just like he was doing right now.

Was it really a _friendship_ that they have?

Gray swung his hammer over his shoulder and picked up his lantern; walking out of the mine. He breathed in the fresh air as he looked around the Spring; not really knowing where to go now. Gray started walking, and continued thinking.

Do friends make you feel so happy that his mood could instantly be turned around once he saw her smile? That they could arouse you while having innocent fun? That they could make your stomach twist in knots whenever they were ignoring each other? Do friends make you miss them so much, that afterwards, you want to hug them and never lot go? To do everything in your power to make sure that they would never get into that sort of situation again?

The blonde certainly didn't want to do that, or felt like that way around Cliff or Kai. Just thinking about that sort of friendship with Kai and Cliff made him want to gag and choke himself to death. Gray felt things, and did things with Claire that he could never imagine having around his other friends. How come he never saw this before? That Claire was a different kind of friend to him?

Gray frowned and kept on walking. He shook his head and corrected himself.

Claire wasn't his friend anymore ..

The blonde realized that Claire had crossed the border of the friend zone. She had gotten into his comfort zone, whatever that may be.

As he walked, he began thinking. Gray was so happy when Claire asked him to be her friend. Now he doesn't even know what she is to him anymore .. maybe that's what she meant with 'it's something else'. Does she still consider him a friend, or not? Was that what it was all about? Had she realized that this wasn't really how friends acted like? Apparently, Claire realized it sooner than he did.

Gray finally admitted it; Claire wasn't a friend to him anymore. She was .. something … _else_.

He knew it wasn't a crush or anything. His last crush wasn't anything like this. Gray didn't feel those butterflies around Claire, or felt so shy around her that he couldn't talk. No, he felt rather comfortable around her when she wasn't putting them in awkward situations, and he could talk to her in a normal way. As if he could tell her anything that was on his mind, he felt _that _comfortable with her. She wasn't a crush, period.

Then what was she to him?

"_It wasn't .. a crush that I have on you … It's something else. Think about it."_

Gray finally realized that Claire had been trying to tell him the exact same thing he had been pondering about right now. Was he that thick-headed that he couldn't see that Claire had been trying to tell him something? It's not like it helped though, Gray couldn't make up his mind or sort his feelings for Claire. All he knew was that she was a friend, in a way, but not really, and he didn't have a crush on her, yet he felt very .. _strongly_.. for this blonde haired chick.

Gray walked over the dirt path, that reached Claire's farm. He stood still as he looked at the farm, letting his eyes gaze over Claire's field. She didn't seem to be working on it right now. New crops were growing for the new season, and her field looked pretty cleaned up.

Gray frowned for the umpteenth time that day.

He felt strongly for Claire. In a sense that he didn't want to leave her, or stop talking to her. It made him feel disconnected from the world, and eventually it made him angry to be separated from her. She made him feel happy, and comfortable enough to talk about anything. Gray didn't want to lose that level of comfortableness. He also didn't want to stop being around this fascinating person, he never knew what was going to happen whenever he was around Claire. Even the way she could control his blood flow so easily, he would actually miss that.

Claire could embarrass him, make him happy, make him angry, make him sad, make him interested, make him regretful, make him blush, make him confused and all those other things that she could do to him. That blonde girl could basically make him do or feel anything Gray had noticed. He wondered if he had the same effect on her, to be able to make her feel anything and do everything.

Didn't she confess to that already though?

"_You can make me say the silliest things, act in the most silliest ways.."_

Could Gray make her _feel_ in the silliest ways too? Did he really have such an influence on her like she said? Could he make her feel all of those things that he felt for her? He thought back on the things she had said when they first started hanging out with each other.

"_I think you're great. I thought; hey if he's holding out, I shouldn't give up either."_ Didn't she say that when they first became friends?

"_Then how come you make me feel comfortable enough to talk to you?" _How come he never realized this?

"_I really like you Gray, I want to be your friend."_ Had she really wanted to _stay _friends?

"_Are you going to stay in Mineral Town?"_ She didn't want him to leave her ..

"_I missed you too."_ She did miss him after not being together anymore.

Gray's eyes had widened more and more as he thought back to the things that Claire said to him. It was so fucking _obvious_ now! It's as if Gray had been blindfolded all this time, and had finally taken off the blindfold to see what was really going on.

Claire felt the exact same way about him the way he felt about her. How come he never realized those things? It was clear to him now; Claire had been telling him these things all along, and only just now he admitted he felt this way about Claire, while she had admitted this a long time ago already. Gray smacked himself in the head for being so ignorant about the stuff that Claire had said to him. She did feel all those things that Gray felt too. The idiot just never actually thought about it.

Gray was finally standing in front of Claire's house, his feet had dragged him over here while he had been lost in his thoughts. It was instinct really, thinking about Claire and then having his feet do the walking while he did the thinking. He didn't want to talk to Claire right now though, he had some sorting out to do. Before Gray could turn away, the door swung open and Claire greeted him with a small smile.

"Going somewhere?" She asked when she saw he was about to turn away. The blonde was wearing her blue overalls as always. She looked pretty comfortable in her place, right in front of him.

Gray suddenly felt nervous around Claire. "N-no.." He stammered out. Claire stared at him in silence for a while, until she moved outside of her house and closed the door behind her. Gray put his lantern and hammer down next to him as he tried to think of something to say to Claire, explaining why he was here.

"What are you doing here?" She asked curiously, standing in front of Gray with that familiar smile of her.

If this girl, that was standing in front of him, wasn't his friend anymore.. Then what was she?

"I found something," said Gray, trying to stop his thoughts and tried to concentrate on the actual conversation.

Claire rose her eyebrow. "What is it?"

Gray's heart started beating fast, he felt like he was being observed by Claire this very moment. Was she thinking about that one day still, just like he was? Thinking how to carefully solve this without making it so awkward? Gray reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the blue shards. He showed it to Claire, who squealed at the sight of a glowing blue ore.

"It's pretty! What is it?" She asked, genuinely interested. "Why is it glowing?" She asked while taking the shard out of his hand. Gray said nothing, but inspected the girl with his eyes.

"Where'd you get it?"

Gray lazily traveled his eyes across her body to reach her blue eyes – they looked exactly like the ore he found. His eyes examined the way her eyebrows kept raising higher, and then lower. Her blonde hair had grown longer since the day he had met her. She had pinkish thin lips that were always stretched into that smile of hers. Her nose was tiny, and while he had always known this, but never really thought about it, her nose was also slightly crooked to the left.

"Well?" She asked impatiently as Gray still hadn't answered her. The shard glowed in her hands, but was forgotten by Gray.

Gray wondered briefly; did he think Claire was pretty? Just like how he thought her eyes looked pretty, like the ore?

No.

Claire wasn't pretty.

She was _beautiful_.

She didn't even deserve to be called beautiful, Claire was just so unique that you couldn't help but be in awe at her. It doesn't matter what she looked like, it was her personality that made Claire shine through her body. She could have looked like a stereotypical fat redneck, and Claire would still be beautiful. Gray had never given much thought about the way Claire looked like, because it had always been the way she acted that he liked so much about her.

"I got it in the mine," he finally whispered, lowering his eyes towards the ground, and once again, hiding his face underneath his cap.

In a swift moment, Claire had taken Gray's cap from his head. She pouted at him while holding his cap. "You shouldn't hide your face, I like to see it," she said and smiled deviously.

Gray felt his hair touch his eyes, it had grown since he last cut it. At the moment, he didn't care she had taken his cap, she could throw it away for all he cared. For now, Gray just wanted to stop time and stand in front of Claire, trying to figure out what she was all about. To try and fill in the blanks. To try and figure out what Claire meant to him.

"What's wrong?" She asked, her voice filling with concern when she noticed the lack of movement and responsiveness from Gray. She placed the blue shard in Gray's hand, and held his hand for a second, staring into his eyes, wondering if he was alright. She was always so worried about him.

Claire was special to him.

In a way not even a friend or a crush could ever be to him.

"Claire?" He asked, staring right back into her eyes. Gray poured his eyes into hers while waiting for her to reply. Slowly he put away the blue shard in his pocket again.

"Yeah?" She said shyly, not being used to Gray staring into her eyes so obviously and intensively.

He paused for a minute, trying to find the right words to say, but he knew he was just going to end up telling Claire everything that was on his mind.

"What did you mean by 'it's something else'?"

A thick silence fell around the two young adults as Claire's eyes had gotten bigger once he had spoken that sentence. Her mouth had fallen open and it started to tremble slightly. Gray noticed he was trembling slightly too, but instead, it was his hole body. What was Claire going to say? It scared Gray like nothing else had ever scared him before, to await this answer that Claire was taking too long to answer. Claire had started to faintly blush, and Gray noticed he had been too. Was it because of his heart beating so fast in anticipation for her answer?

The blonde girl awkwardly shifted on her spot, but kept her eyes on Gray.

"I don't know."

Gray let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, but his nerves were still on the rise as his heart started to pump more blood to his face.

"Care to explain?" He asked nervously.

"Well, ehm, it's just .. it's not that easy to explain," said Claire with a sigh. So instead of trying to explain things, Claire's head shot up to meet Gray's eyes.

"Gray? Am I only a friend to you?" She asked bluntly.

"No." Had Gray said immediately with a steady voice that surprised Claire with his honesty.

"Then, what am I to you?"

That was a damn good question. Gray didn't consider her his friend anymore, because she was too special to him to get the title of being a friend. Nor was she his crush or anything. Not even that, she clearly wasn't a little sister to him either. Claire was .. special, in a way. He didn't want to leave her, he wanted to stay with her and share those weird moments together.

"Something else," replied Gray, knowing he had used the exact same words as Claire's when she tried to explain that she didn't have a crush on him. The blonde girl glared at him with her eyes, not thinking kindly of him stealing her words. She then casted her eyes downward, thinking silently in herself.

"I don't know when I stopped considering you just as a friend.." She whispered. Gray silently agreed. He just realized that Claire wasn't just a friend to him anymore, but he had felt this way for a while already. The blonde boy just never noticed that he stopped considering Claire as his friend.

"I mean, I've had friends before, but I have never felt this way around a friend," Claire admitted softly.

"You're just .. I don't know .. you _are_ a good friend, but it's something way more than that. I just can't really exp-" Gray cut Claire off by putting his finger on her lips. She looked at him, shock filling her eyes. He could feel her lip trembling against the tip of his index finger. Her lips were so soft ..

"Stop explaining," he whispered and stepped closer to her. Emotions were going haywire through his body since the moment Claire started talking. It was a circus down in his mind, he felt every emotion he could ever feel right then and right there, standing in front of Claire. What could this be? The way that he was feeling, what could it be? He removed his finger from her lips and stared at her face from close up. How could this girl possibly bring out all these emotions from him?

"I..I-I…" Stammered Claire, not getting the words out from her mouth in the correct way. She started fanning herself with his cap, that she had held on to all this time, she was obviously getting hot too.

Gray felt relaxed, and at the same time nervous. He felt tensed, but comfortable. He felt anxious, but happy. He felt everything that was just so contradicting of each other that Gray tried to stable himself, trying to not let everything get to him and make him crazy.

"Claire," he muttered from his lips. His heart, it was going way too fast. It was as if his heart knew what was going to come, as if it prepared him for this future event. The blonde boy stepped closer once more and bent down to her face. She looked just as confused as he did. Was she feeling what he was feeling at this exact same moment? Was she feeling like a circus freak too?

His hands reached out to grab Claire around her waist. She dropped his cap on the ground and lifted up her arms to place it around his neck. They both pulled each other closer in a very emotional embrace. Gray closed his eyes as he felt Claire leaning against his chest. She tightly secured her arms around his neck, as he grabbed her warmly around her waist. The emotions were still going crazy in his body, but at the same time he felt very calm and secure. Holding Claire, in his arms, that was where she should be with him. That's the way it should have been all this time. It felt so right and still so confusing at the same time. All that mattered was that Claire was here; she was going to be here, and she willingly wanted to be here .. _with him._

They stood there, in silence, just holding each other. Gray's mind had shut down, he couldn't really think anymore, as he was enjoying the moment he was having with Claire. He felt good emotions fill his mind and body, which was a good thing. Both of them just kept standing there; entirely content in the way they were right now.

Until Claire spoke up.

"I think I like you," she said against his chest. She buried herself deeper into his embrace. "A-a crush doesn't even begin to describe .. what I _feel … _when I'm with you."

"I know," replied Gray seriously, still having his eyes closed as he listened to the beautiful voice of Claire. He removed one arm from her waist as he lifted it up to play with her long blonde hair. She didn't seem to mind. His body, along with hers, had been shaking all this time with these revelations they were both admitting to. Yet, everything felt so calm and natural.

"I want you to stay here," began Gray, resting his chin on her blonde hair. "I don't want you to leave .. _me_."

He could feel Claire nod against his chest. Her fingers were started to play with his hair too, rubbing her soft fingers softly against his neck and toying around with his blonde hair. Gray swallowed hard, finding it difficult to focus on his words now. Claire continued to rest her head against his chest, seemingly to find it comforting that Gray was twirling her hair around his finger.

"S-Stay with me?" Mumbled Gray softly. Her fingers stopped stroking the back of his neck. He immediately wanted to nudge Claire to continue doing what she was doing before.

She pushed herself from his chest and looked straight up into his eyes. "No," she said bluntly and seriously.

He could feel his heart fall.

"I don't just want to stay with you – I want to_ be_ with you."

And it rose up just as fast as it fell.

Gray smiled nervously at her, resting both his hands on her hips. She let her hands rest on his shoulders as they both stared at each other. Was this really happening right now? Today, he went from not knowing what he considered Claire to be to him, to him asking if she wanted to stay with him. Talk about your epiphany. He just couldn't keep it to himself, he had been feeling like this for awhile, but had blissfully ignored it – just like Kai had said. Whatever he considered Claire, he just wanted him to be with her. He didn't want to have her leave him.

Claire's hand traveled from his shoulder to his hand, and started pulling him towards her house. "Let's go inside," she said softly, opening the door and pulling the both of them in there. Gray walked in and closed the door behind him, still being dragged along by Claire's hand. After a while, she let go, and stared at him for a good 5 minutes in silence before she started talking again.

"Do you really like me?" She asked quietly. Gray's heart started beating faster again.

"Yeah.."

"It's all so confusing .. really," said Gray as he scratched his head, not realizing his cap wasn't on his head anymore. Claire nodded in agreement, finding it confusing herself too.

"I don't feel like this is a crush, but I have this .. _attraction _towards you that makes me never want to leave your side," said Gray, and was surprised he could actually say something like that. He really did feel like that though; he never wanted to leave Claire's side.

Claire let out a little giggle that eased out the strained mood they were both in. "Now what, though?" Asked Gray awkwardly. Yeah he just confessed his weird and confusing feelings and all, but that doesn't mean he knew what to do.

Claire took a step closer to him. "You want to be with me, right?" She asked as she took his hands into her own, pulling him closer.

"Yes," said Gray firmly; he didn't want to leave Claire, ever. She looked away from his eyes and paused for a while, trying to find words that were hard to speak. Claire's eyes looked at him again as she opened her pink lips to speak.

"How does being my boyfriend sound like?" She asked shyly.

Time had stopped completely as Gray inhaled sharply. Gray should have thought about that, because it was so obvious, but Claire still managed to make him feel weak in his knees again because all his blood was up in his face of course. He had to think for a moment; boyfriend?

Did he want to be .. her _boyfriend_?

He did not want to leave Claire, he wanted to be with her. Stay with her and share life with her in the way that they had been doing. He felt strongly towards her, only recently knowing that he felt she was special to him. Gray realized that his feelings for Claire had been growing ever since he met her, yet he never really noticed, but did those feelings fit in the 'boyfriend' term?

The blonde goy guessed, that boyfriend seemed like a more appropriate title than just 'friend'. He looked at Claire's eyes. To become her boyfriend .. To be in an intimate relationship with Claire .. To be able to physically touch her in ways friends should _never_ do .. To have her with him at his side, to have her never leave him. It was all so new to him. Yesterday he didn't even think of Claire as someone he liked enough to be in a relationship – but right now he felt as if he should jump at that chance. Having Claire to be his, his girlfriend .. for some reason, it made all those emotions resurface and it made Gray crazy. It all felt right, but so new and so confusing.

Did he want Claire to be his girlfriend? Was it a wise decision? Could he be in a relationship with this girl, and make her happy? Yesterday he didn't even think about this all, yet today he was standing here; in front of this blonde girl who was awaiting his answer. Claire was special to him, really special, and somehow, thinking that he could be her boyfriend – it made sense. It made everything fall into place about what he was feeling for her. Not that he could understand his feelings though.

Gray looked at Claire, feeling very confused, but at the same time comfortable and happy.

Did he feel that way around her? Did he feel like he could be her boyfriend?

Gray closed his eyes and inhaled slowly. He opened them again to look into Claire's eyes, those pretty ores ..

"That sounds just fine."


	11. Wake Up

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:** Hope you liked the previous chapter. The ending is almost near! Just one more chapter to go and the story is finished. Don't worry, it'll be a pretty long chapter, the last one that is. Thanks for everyone who reviewed.

**Chapter 11 – **_**Wake Up**_

**--**

Gray woke up, not to the sound of loud snoring, or because his bed was too uncomfortable. No, he woke up because he _didn't _hear the loud snoring, and his bed was_ too_ comfortable. The blonde opened his eyes slowly, peering through his blonde eyelashes. He was met with a bunch of hay-like hair right in his face. It was everywhere, and it was somehow attached to Claire's scalp. It took a while before the wheels in his brains started turning. Then he realized, that it wasn't just a half-assed dream – Claire was sleeping right next to him.

His heart started thumping like a man-man as he got up in a flash and backed away from Claire; fleeing away into the corner of the wall. The blanket slid off of him, revealing just his shirt.

_Why am I laying in Claire's bed!?_

The blonde boy's chest rose and fell in a fast manner; the bloke was utterly confused. Right in front of him, was Claire, underneath a blanket, snuggling close to her pillow. Horror plagued Gray's face as his skin started turning pale; why was he laying in bed with her? Did they do something? Did _he _do something? What happened before he fell asleep? He couldn't remember it at all. Gray quickly flung himself out of Claire's tiny bed and fell to the ground. His head shot up to see if he woke Claire up; but she was still sound asleep. Thank Goddess that his pants and shirt were still on. The blonde picked himself up and looked around for his jacket and other stuff he brought along with him.

There, on the floor, was his jacket, neatly folded along with his cap, lantern and hammer.

Gray quickly picked up his cap and put it on his head while he pulled on his jacket. He grabbed his other stuff and disappeared from the house, leaving Claire to continue sleeping on her own. He didn't know where he was going, nor did he really care. All that was on his mind was Claire anyway; he didn't really have any room for anything else. Gray quickened his pace as he disappeared from her farm.

There was one word echoing in his mind;

_Girlfriend._

Gray had accepted to be Claire's boyfriend. Claire was now his girlfriend, and he wasn't so sure if he wanted it to be like this or not. How could he have agreed to something like that on the spot? Was he so sure that he could see Claire in a romantic way? While on that matter – did Gray think he was good enough for Claire? Didn't she deserve someone who had more confidence than him, someone who wasn't so confused about his feelings?

Why did Claire asked him to be her boyfriend?

_Why?_

It was still morning, early morning. The sky was slowly turning a little pink, and the breeze was chilly. Gray's feet had taken him towards the beach; but the blonde was zoned out and didn't really pay attention to where he was going.

_Girlfriend. Boyfriend. Girlfriend. Boyfriend._

Gray squeezed his eyes shut and let out a frustrating roar out of no where. Some birds flew away that were hiding in a tree at the sound of this threatening roar. He opened his blue eyes again and glared at the birds. There was too much on his mind, Gray couldn't keep track of his thoughts going a 100 miles a second. It was just. So. Frustrating.

Suddenly his feet were covered in sand, but the blonde did not take any notice of this. He kept walking towards the sea, while he brooded in his confusing thoughts. He threw his hammer and lantern in the sand, and marched up towards the sea, until his feet were in the water. Gray threw off his cap and kept on going further and his body sunk lower into the ocean. The ice cold water reached to his thighs and Gray had to bite down on his tongue to prevent himself from screeching out his girly yell. The blonde shook his head and continued; until his upper body had completely disappeared into the sea.

Gray closed his eyes and held in his breath before he dove down into the sea with all his clothes on. The water made his blood run cold; but he didn't care. It was cold, really cold, but that's exactly what Gray needed, he needed a wake up call.

In a few seconds, his head resurfaced above water, but he was now further from the shore than before. Gray laid there, floating in the water while he looked up towards the sky, where only a few clouds were settling. The sun was slowly appearing from the end of the world, making the sea have an orange glow. Gray couldn't care less. He sighed and just laid there, not moving, letting his body drift across the small waves.

The blonde himself couldn't believe he had agreed to be a Claire's boyfriend. The little girl had this knack for making him agree to things he hadn't quite thought through.

For one, Gray didn't even know his real feelings for Claire. All he knew was that he never wanted to leave her side, and he liked touching her. How that suddenly translated to boyfriend material, he didn't know. Claire was just .. weird like that sometimes. The young adult didn't consider himself boyfriend material – he was horrible at sorting his own feelings, and as a boyfriend he would utterly fail at knowing what someone else was feeling. How could he be someone's partner, yet not even know what to make of himself?

Gray was Gray, he was not good at knowing how to make someone happy. He wasn't good at sorting his feelings – he didn't even know what exactly he felt for Claire. He just wasn't good and communicating his thoughts, period. He was _not _boyfriend material, and if Claire thought he was – well, she was just dead wrong.

Sure, he felt strongly towards Claire, and he liked being around her, and 'boyfriend' did kind of describe his feelings towards her; but he could never be in a serious relationship like that. Gray just wasn't good at that stuff, Claire needed someone better than him. Someone who wouldn't make her cry all the time, someone who could actually tell her what he felt, someone who just wasn't such a bad person like he was.

Anyone but him.

And Kai.

And Cliff.

And every other guy on the world – they didn't deserve Claire.

Claire was too good for anyone else, even for him, and it made him angry. Gray knew he wasn't any good for Claire, and was vaguely wondering if she had been playing a joke on him. Yet everything felt so real and so right when they confessed together .. he wasn't sure _what_ to think anymore with all these confusing thoughts going around in his mind. Had there ever been a day when he knew Claire that his mind wasn't filled with confusing thoughts?

"Dude, what the heck are you doing?" Asked a voice from the beach. Gray whirled his head around in the water and saw Kai standing on the beach, holding his keys to the beach house, and having a dumb-founded look on his face.

"Did you need a cold shower?" Snickered Kai as he came closer towards the water. Gray swam back to the beach and got out of water, immediately he got cold and regretted going into the sea so early this morning. He shook his head to clear his face from his wet hair.

Gray coughed as he stared at Kai. "Just needed a wake-up call," he said as a matter of fact. The blonde picked his cap up from the sand and planted it on his head, even though he was completely soaked with water.

Kai raised his eyebrow at gray, but shrugged it off. "So, how did it go yesterday?" He asked while he scratched the back of his head.

Gray shrugged. "Okay, I guess."

"Just 'okay'?"

"She asked me to be her boyfriend.."

Kai's brown eyes shot wide open and stared at Gray with this widest grin on his face he had ever seen.

"That's great news!" Exclaimed Kai happily and patted Gray on the back. Then he stopped and looked seriously at Gray. "You said yes, right? Don't tell me you said no."

"Of course I said yes," snapped Gray back. "I'm just not sure if it was the correct answer."

Kai stared at Gray for a couple of seconds, wondering if Gray had gone mad or something. "What do you mean?" Kai asked carefully, raising both his eyebrows and pouted his lips in a thoughtful manner.

"Do I look like boyfriend material to you?" Asked Gray indignantly.

"Good point," responded Kai. The tanned boy kept his further comments to himself, not wishing to provoke Gray even more than he already was. Gray wasn't exactly angry, or irritated, but he sure as hell wasn't happy or even in a good mood. A confusing Gray is a dangerous Gray, that's what Kai thought.

"Hey, look at it from the bright side; _she _was the one who asked you, right?" Said Kai and winked at him. Gray merely shrugged his shoulders, not really caring.

"Now why are you swimming in the sea, when you've got a new girlfriend at home that needs to be shagged?"

Kai stuck out his tongue and ran towards his beach house, escaping Gray's evil clutches. He disappeared in his beach house and locked the door. Gray sighed heavily and turned around, grabbing his things and walking towards the inn where he would take a shower and put on some new clothes. He realized he had work today, but he seriously didn't feel like going today – not after the events of yesterday.

Gray took a shower, and rid himself of his wet work clothes. He put on a black shirt and some loose brown pants. The blonde realized he almost never wore something else, but that doesn't really matter when there were more important things to think about. For example; he was now Claire's boyfriend, officially. He didn't feel like a boyfriend, and he didn't even know how a boyfriend would treat his girlfriend. Gray was certain though, that he felt Claire was special to him. In a way that 'boyfriend' made him happy, but on the other hand, it made him sad because he was sure that he wasn't good enough for Claire.

There was a knock on his door, and Gray turned around to raise his eyebrow. Who could it be that wanted in the inn's bedroom? Cliff had a key, Kai had a key – but Claire didn't. Could it be..? His heart started thumping faster again as he made his way over to the door. He grabbed the doorknob and turned it around, to open the door.

Of course it was Claire.

She looked sad and confused, with her big eyes staring at Gray as he stared back at her with big eyes.

"Why'd you leave?" Asked Claire concerned, not even bothering with a proper good morning or something. Gray blinked at her, and said nothing.

"Do you not want to be with me?" She said, this time more seriously, but her voice was muffled by her nerves.

Gray examined the girl standing in front of him.

She was beautiful. She could make him happy and sad at the same time. She was everything that Gray needed to stay happy forever. He wanted to stay with her forever, to have her by his side to share every experience in his life. So that they could laugh together, crack jokes, or cry together and hug each other. Claire meant a lot to him, and he wouldn't dare to ruin her, or to hurt her. If he would continue being her boyfriend, Gray was sure he would end up disappointing Claire, and in the end she'd get hurt, and they would drift apart.

Gray didn't want that. He didn't want to ruin what he already had.

"Was it wrong for me to ask you to be my boyfriend?" Claire whimpered out, trying to fight back her emotional outburst as always. "I'm sorry for asking then.." She whispered and hung her head down to stare at the floor.

"No, no, no!" Said Gray quickly, noticing he had been silent this whole time while Claire tried to get an answer out of him. See, this is exactly what he means with not good enough for Claire. He could make her cry without even lifting up a finger. It just made more sense if he wasn't her boyfriend, then he couldn't hurt her as much.

"I wonder if you even like me at all.." Murmured Claire more to herself than to Gray, but the blonde heard it and straightened up to over tower her small frame. Gray placed his hands on her tiny shoulders and shook her a little. Those words were_ all_ lies. Lies!

"I like you Claire, don't ever think I don't," he said seriously and stared in her eyes, wanting to make sure she got it.

"But you don't want to be with me?" She said softly.

Gray closed his eyes and removed his hands from her shoulders. He sighed deeply. "I just don't want to hurt you. I'm not good enough for you."

Claire's eyes lost all of her sadness and was replaced with anger in a second. "And all this time I was thinking that you bailed on me because_ I_ did something wrong! I thought you ran away because _I _wasn't good enough for you. That I was _too_ confusing for you!" She yelled out angrily. Talk about your temper being changed on a whim.

Gray swallowed as he backed away just a little bit. "Sorry," muttered Claire as she calmed herself down.

"Why do you want to be with me?" Asked Gray softly, leaning against his doorpost.

"Because I want to," replied Claire simply. "Why do _you _want to be with me?"

"Because I want to," fired Gray back. "I just don't think it's such a good idea, because I always manage to get you hurt."

"What if I don't care?" Asked Claire, her eyes watering just by a little, stepping closer to Gray.

Gray raised his left eyebrow at her; she doesn't care if he could hurt her so easily? Physically, he would never even dare to try and hurt her, but emotionally .. everything he did made a big impact on Claire. Awkwardly he stared at Claire, waiting for her to say something else.

"Then that's stupid," he managed to say. "If you don't care that I always manage to hurt you – then you're stupid."

"I don't appreciate being called stupid because of my choices, Gray," she growled at him.

"Well it's true. I can hurt you so easily. I don't want to do that to you. If I stay with you, I'm sure that's probably all that will happen," said Gray seriously.

For the first time, Claire had smacked Gray in the face with the palm of her hand. Gray looked back at her shockingly.

"Don't you dare and think that you can hurt me! It's my choice that I want to be with you, through better and through worse – I don't care what you can do to me. I just want to be with you," Claire spoke fast and harsh.

There was another smack.

This time it came from Gray; he had hit Claire in the face too with the palm of his hand.

"You're not supposed to hit me back!" She wailed and held her cheek with her hand, as if it was burning. Gray just glared at her.

"I can hurt you," said Gray.

"I can hurt you _back,_" snapped Claire and glared at him.

"Not in the way that I can," he replied.

"Do you want to test that out," she said darkly, still holding her cheek with her hand.

For the situation he was in, Gray found himself to be perfectly calm this time. As if he finally knew what he was doing, and why he was doing it. As if he had a purpose that calmed him down enough to convey his message to Claire. He could hurt her, and that's why they shouldn't be together. Period.

"Alright – fine, do whatever you want. If you don't want to be with me, then I will bid you farewell forever, Gray," she said and turned around, her blonde hair swishing along with her body.

Gray's eyes widened and grabbed her wrist, holding her in place. Claire refused to turn her head to look back at him. "What?" She spat out, obviously mad and hurt. Gray had done it again, he hurt Claire again as easily as that.

"Don't go," he said simply, holding her wrist more strongly.

"I'm going because you don't want to hurt me."

She pulled her wrist out of his hand and turned around to look at him. "If you want me to stay, then say so, if you want me to go, then say you want me to go."

Gray stared at her for a long, long time, figuring out what it was that he wanted exactly. He didn't want to leave Claire, but on the other hand, he didn't want to stay with her in fear of hurting her again. There really wasn't a middle choice anymore if Claire decided to disappear from his life forever. He didn't want to lose her, yet he didn't want to hurt her either.

"I want you to stay," Gray said bluntly. "But I don't want to hurt you," he continued.

"If you leave, you'll hurt me more than you could ever hurt me while being with me."

"So stay with me, please," said Claire in a tiny voice, pleading Gray to stay with her. The blonde boy sighed.

"Are you sure you want me as your boyfriend?" He asked seriously. Claire smiled and happily nodded her head. "I'm very sure."

"Then I'm very sure to have you as my girlfriend, I guess."

"You only 'guess'?" Said Claire, feigning hurt in her voice. Gray smiled, for the first time that day. He swiftly grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer to him, shoving Claire in his chest. He leaned down so his lips were right next to her ears. Gray could feel his own heartbeat going faster again, but at the moment he didn't care.

"_You're mine_," he whispered in her ear, and he swore that he felt Claire tremble slightly. Gray let the blonde girl go as he looked at Claire's face, whom was now blushing furiously. A smile played on Gray's lips, thinking highly of himself because he successfully made Claire blush. She looked pretty cute when she was at a loss of words. His blue eyes traveled down to stop and stare at Claire's pink, tiny lips.

He wondered briefly; had he ever thought about kissing Claire?

The thought alone filled his head with blood, it made him excited and happy, yet terribly shy and nervous. Kissing Claire .. to have his lips capture hers in an intimate lip-lock .. Wasn't that what couples did? Gray wasn't sure, he wasn't even sure if he even wanted to kiss Claire – with all his non-experience in kissing and stuff, he was sure to make a fool of himself if he ever tried.

"Staring at my lips?" Said Claire with a grin. Gray blushed tremendously. "No," he lied quickly, not wanting to discuss this.

Claire stepped closer, and placed her hands on his shoulders, forcing him to bent down to her level. "Ever been kissed, Gray?" She asked in a seductive voice that sent chills across Gray's body. He stared at her face, which was really close to his.

"No," he said very softly. He never had a girlfriend in his life, let alone kissing someone else on the lips.

Claire smiled at him as she leaned her face closer to his, and frankly it scared the hell out of Gray. She blushed, probably as much as he did, as he saw her coming closer and closer, until their noses were touching each other.

"Do you want to _kiss me_?" She said in a playful voice, and Gray swore that Claire had dictatorship over his blood cells, seeing as it was going all to his head.

"M-maybe," he said, stumbling over this one word.

His body froze as he saw Claire had closed her eyes. She stood on her toes to awkwardly reach his face better and launched herself at him. In a second, her lips had touched his briefly. They were gone as fast as they came. Gray stood there, frozen in his spot, and he couldn't do anything but stare at Claire while blushing his head off, she was blushing rather hard herself. She stared back at him, as if she was waiting for his approval. As if she was waiting for him to say that he wanted more.

He did want more.

He wanted to have that little moment back again, no matter how fearsome and fast it had felt like. Gray cupped the back of Claire's head and pulled her face closer to his, putting his big lips on her tiny ones.

It felt like ..

Like …

_Lips on lips._

Forget what movies were always saying that once you kiss someone, you feel this spark. If the burning of his lips meant that he was feeling a 'spark', then sparkly he felt. Her lips were kind of slim, but they were warm nonetheless. Both of them didn't move, they were just pressing their lips against each other. While it was awkward to say the least, it was also exciting. Not to mention the fact that his blood was pumping somewhere else besides his face. Claire pulled back and smiled at him shyly. Gray couldn't help but grin back at her.

How awkward this must be, both of them didn't know what the hell they were doing – but they were doing it, and they were enjoying it. Claire leaned back again, pressing her lips on him more harshly. He noticed she had licked her lips before she started kissing him again, and he rather liked it. Gray sucked her bottom lip, finding it rather nice. He felt Claire's hands grip his neck closer and tighter.

Suddenly, Claire let go, and leaned back. All the warmth that he got from that kiss was gone, and he was desperate to get it back again. He tried to pull her back, but she merely grinned and turned around and walked into his bedroom with a sly smile on her face. She blew him a kiss and walked over to his bed.

Gray followed.


	12. Starry Night

**Pretty Ore**

**A/N:**Everyone who thought perversely at the end of chapter 11 are VERY wrong! Nothing happened, they were just sleeping next to each other innocently. This is the last chapter, with flashbacks thrown in here about them doing couple stuff and a satisfying end (I hope). So, thanks to everyone who reviewed this story!

Also, a warning for this chapter, it might not be suitable for younger viewers. I changed the rating to M, because it finally has the sexual themes in here.

**Chapter 12 – **_**Starry Night**_

**--**

Time had passed ever since that day Claire slept in his bed at the Inn. It was already winter, and Kai had long left along with the summer of Mineral Town. Cliff had actually gotten a job at the Winery, and with a lot of pushing from Claire's side, he had the guts to ask Ann out on a lunch date.

And Gray? Gray was the happiest person on earth ever since he became Claire's boyfriend. Last month, they decided it would be best for Gray to move in with Claire on her farm. Paying for the Inn was getting too expensive, and he loved being able to sleep with Claire in their own bed. Waking up next to her was one of life's perks, as was falling asleep right next to her. Every time he would wake up in the morning, he would smell roses and lilies, from the shampoo that Claire used on her hair. They would eat breakfast together, got dressed together, and even take showers together.

Yes, they had seen each other naked over hundreds of times now. It took a while though, to finally be able to show each other for what they truly are. It's also because of a hilarious event, when Gray accidentally walked in on Claire while she was showering; he was merely looking for his jacket which he left in the bathroom. Of course they had both been embarrassed as hell, but they got over it. Especially since Claire decided it was time they stopped being childish and got over it. Gray mused on his memories.

--

"Okay Gray, that's enough. I had enough of us being embarrassed because you saw me naked," said Claire in her high-pitched voice as she stood next to him. Gray's mouth fell open, his cereal falling out and landing on Claire's table. It was morning, and apparently Claire had this brilliant idea to share during breakfast.

"W-what?" Stammered Gray, closing his mouth and blushed at Claire. What was she going on about?

"The faster we get over this, the better! Right?" She asked with a smile. Gray said nothing, but eyed her suspiciously.

"It's only fair if I see _you_ naked, right?" She said, but this time didn't wait for an answer, but started kissing him on the lips – something they had done a million times, but he never grew tired of. Gray forgot her words and kissed back, loving her lips on his, until he felt that her hands had sneaked around his neck to tear off his tie.

Gray gasped as he saw Claire straddling his waist; taking off his clothing.

"What are you doing!?" Hissed Gray as he pushed Claire off.

"Stripping you, duh!" She said and got closer to him again and managed to unbutton his shirt. Gray flinched away from her. "Stop that!" He said nervously, holding his shirt closed and ran around the table to avoid Claire.

"Don't be such a baby, you saw me naked. Now I get to see you naked – you shouldn't be ashamed of it," said Claire as a matter of fact.

Gray admitted that once Claire became his girlfriend, that the awkward situations were still very much present, and Claire just loved teasing him about everything that made him embarrassed. You should have seen her the first time she woke up next to him, and she noticed that he had a morning wood. All jokes aside, Claire had her fun, while Gray couldn't look her in the eye for over a week.

"I'm not going to strip in front of you," said Gray, circling around the table as he saw Claire reaching for him, running after him.

"But you're my boyfriend!" She whined, chasing after him. They both ran in circles around the dining table, each being childish. The blonde girl then climbed on the table and jumped on top of Gray, who's legs couldn't take the sudden impact and he tumbled down along with Claire to the wooden floor.

She yelled out a victoriously 'hah!' and straddled his body to the ground. Then she proceeded to innocently unbutton his shirt. Gray tried to throw her off, but she was pretty locked on his waist. He also tried to slap away her hands, but Claire was smart enough to start tickling him in his sides, so that he was completely at her mercy.

"Claaiiirreee! Stop it!" He whined and tried to squiggle out from underneath her. Claire merely grinned and opened his shirt; showing his bare chest.

"Oh look at that, no chest hair. You're such a cute wittle boy," cooed Claire as she pinched his cheek. Gray blushed furiously and finally managed to throw Claire off on the ground.

"This is sexual harassment!" He yelled at her, running away to the living room. Claire ran after him.

"No it's not!" Lied Claire and jumped on him again, but Gray evaded it skillfully this time. "I'll show you my body too then!" She said, quite confident of her case. Gray blinked at her, standing behind the couch and watching Claire stand in between her kitchen and the living room. She took off her blue overalls; revealing her checkered red and white shirt, and her black hot pants.

Oh Goddess, what is she going to do now.

She slowly took off her shirt, revealing a light blue bra that matched her eyes. Claire threw her shirt on the ground, and started advancing closer to Gray, who was staring at her dumbfounded. Gray suddenly began to feel a lot hotter than before, and it was winter for Goddess's sake!

"Claire .. what are you doing," he said softly, suddenly the power of his voice started to 'poof' away once Claire was standing in front of him with all her half-naked glory. She reached out her hands, towards his pants, and started unbuttoning them. This time, Gray didn't move, but that might also be because he was ogling Claire's body.

Because she was so small and skinny, her breasts were kind of small too. That didn't take away her beautifulness of them though. Claire was pretty, and every day he was reminded that she could look stunning even in her work clothes covered in mud. Yet now, she was standing half naked, showing off even more of her body and dear Goddess, Gray was getting warm. He heard a zip and he looked down. In a swift moment Claire had managed to pull down his pants, so that they were covered over his shoes. He stood there, looking dumb and stupid. Gray's flower-patterned boxers were showing, and Claire had to stifle her giggle when she saw them.

No, wait, she was giggling because of something else.

"Am I still sexually harassing you, when you're clearly enjoying this?" Asked Claire and pointed at his boxers.

Of course, his hard boner was sticking out, and Gray blushed like he never had before. He quickly turned around and pulled up his pants – but Claire literally threw herself at him, dragging his pants down again, and he toppled over towards the ground. He laid there on the floor again, with his face down. His penis was in a _very _uncomfortable position. Slowly Gray could feel his shoes being taken off, and his pants slid off of his legs. He was now left with his socks, his boxers, half his dignity and a boner that was being squashed by his own body weight..

"Come on Gray, we have to get over this," she said and turned him over so that he was facing her. "Look, I'll strip together with you," Claire said and unhooked her bra.

If life was an anime, Gray would have been squirting out blood like the violent bloody scenes in the movie Kill Bill.

--

Needless to say, Claire eventually had gotten them naked together. It had been one awkward moment that was burned into his memories, but later on, he could look back at it and grin at himself for being so shy. Yes, they both had been very shy, up until the moment that Claire got sick of it, and decided to just show it all, so that there was nothing else to be shy of anymore. The method, while mentally scarring and highly arousing, was actually successful. He knew that if he ever told Kai, the bandana boy would have never believed Gray.

Then again, there were other things that was still kind of hard to act natural around with Claire. For example, the first time Claire had farted out loud, Gray had laughed his ass off, but Claire was embarrassed as hell. He thought back of that memory and smiled awkwardly.

--

"You know, I think this is the first time you cooked dinner for me." Claire smiled at Gray as she sat down at the table.

Gray proudly gave her a plate, filled with his favourite dish; baked corn. It being his favourite dish and all, Gray didn't find it hard to make, and he was proud of himself. He sat down at the table and grabbed a spoon, scooping up his baked corn and shoving it into his mouth. Claire took it slower – she always ate slow. It was kind of annoying, but then again, it was supposedly healthier or something like that. During their eating, he had heard Claire's stomach growl. She looked kind of pale now that he looked at her skin. She slowly brought the spoon to her mouth, but then put it down in her bowl, as her stomach growled again.

"Are you okay, Claire?" He asked concerned. Was the food bad or something?

Claire nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just think I can't stomach the backed corn – no offense."

Gray blushed. "You don't have to eat it if you don't like it." If Claire didn't like his food, she could just tell him, he's man enough to handle that sort of criticism from his girlfriend. Okay, he lied – he can't handle it. He tried his utter best to prepare this meal for Claire so he could show her he wasn't bad at cooking. That whole point would be totally pointless if she didn't like the food to begin with.

"No, don't worry, I like it, I just don't think my stomach agrees," mumbled Claire and her stomach growled once more.

There was a silence before suddenly, a big loud explosion of wind emerged from Claire's side. Gray's eyes widened and Claire stared at him wide-eyed too. Claire, had farted. Not just a toot, no, it was a fucking atom bomb.

Then Gray started to crack up.

"Oh man, Claire! That was _awesome_!" He laughed at her, replaying her 'explosive wind' with his mouth, mocking Claire.

"Didn't know you had it in you!" He said and laughed even louder, still mimicking her enormous fart.

Claire blushed hard and stood up from the table, running away towards their bedroom. Gray shut his mouth as his eyes followed Claire's frame disappearing from the kitchen.

"Ah come on Claire, you know I was just messing with you," he called out after her.

It seemed, that Claire had locked herself up in their bedroom, and refused to get out of it. She said she was totally embarrassed by it, but what was worse, that Gray had to actually repeat her fart over and over again. Gray apologized and apologized, but Claire didn't say anything back, and kept to herself for a few hours, until Gray decided he had enough.

"Alright!" He called out.

"Farting is completely normal, and I will show you I don't care that you farted."

Gray went to the kitchen and grabbed a can of beans. It was the perfect farting-starter for him. He quickly found a can-opener and opened the can, spilling the contents on a plate. The blonde boy swallowed them as fast as he could, and then he waited. He waited until he felt the urge to pass gas.

He stood at the bedroom door as he felt a fart coming up.

"Here goes, this is how normal farting is," he said seriously.

A soft, pathetic sound came from his butt. Gray frowned, and he heard Claire laugh at him from inside the bedroom. "That one doesn't count!" He growled. He squeezed his eyes shut and started to forcefully push his farts out.

There they came, one after the other, getting louder and longer and smellier the more he farted.

"See! I don't care you farted!" Said Gray, as he tried to pull off one big one. He pushed and he pushed, until he finally heard his final fart, which was loud and had this goddess-awful smell. It took a while for Gray to realize that the smell didn't came from his fart ..

Claire finally opened the door and smiled at him. "You're so weird Gray, but thank you anyway" she said.

Gray raised an eyebrow, as he stood there, half-way hunched over. His left eye started to twitch.

"Oh Goddess Gray, don't ever do that again, it _reeks_ in here!" Exclaimed Claire as she closed her nose with her fingers.

"Claire," he began very slowly and seriously. Claire looked up, while fanning herself from the nasty stench in the air.

"What?" She asked.

"I think I shit my pants."

--

Yes he would still hear jokes about that even till this very day. Gray just laughed it off and would say that he shit himself on purpose, so that Claire would feel more comfortable around him, and wouldn't think about her own fart anymore. Claire knew the truth though, and luckily she decided to never tell anyone else. He loved her for that.

After that day though, they had become more comfortable with each other than ever. They'd get randomly naked in the house, watch tv on her couch while they were only wearing just a few things. Claire would happily belch and burp, and even fart around him. Gray happily did the same; happy that he didn't have to 'behave' himself around his girlfriend. After all, he was only human with humanly gasses – as was she. The blonde boy was actually very happy with how the events led them to being themselves around each other. No more hiding your farts by secretly fanning yourself under the table, no more burping through your nose, no more 'the dog did it' excuses – just plain, raw people.

It was all happy and joyful then, until Gray realized that one fatal day that it wouldn't all ever be happy and joyful. When you're in a relationship, you stick with your partner through better and through worse. Gray found out exactly what 'worse' meant. It was a Thursday, the day that Gray hiked the mountain peak, and this time, he decided to take Claire with him. He wanted to show her the nice view of Forget-Me-Not Village you could see from the top.

It was one of the scariest days in his life.

--

"Come on Claire, you're so slow," said Gray as he turned around to look at Claire. She was trying to climb up this steep path, which Gray could easily walk over with ease. Claire was a different story though, she had never hiked in her life, and she was clumsily trying to follow Gray. Of course, that made her all the more cute.

"Well, _Sor-ry!_" Snapped Claire defensively. "I never hiked before in my life," she defended herself. A drop of water landed on her nose. She looked up at the dark clouds.

"Bah, it's starting to rain," she said.

Gray noticed she was starting to get in a bad mood. It was raining a little bit though, and Gray could see dark clouds emerging from the sky. He sighed and shrugged; they could at least finish their hike to get to the top. Gray slid down a little bit down the steep path and reached his hand out for Claire, waiting for her to take hold of it so he could hoist her up. The girl pulled out her arm, to try and grab Gray's hand, but it was out of her reach. By now, it wasn't drizzling anymore, it was raining more and more by the second.

Claire pulled back and stood on her place. "I want to go back home, it's no fun when it's raining."

"Oh come on, let us at least get up on the top, it's not far anymore," said Gray, he didn't want to leave just yet.

Claire sighed, but tried to grab Gray's hand again. She stood on her toes, and leaned one of her hands against the now muddy steep path. Her fingers were touching Gray's finger, and he was just about to grab her when he saw Claire slip because the path had turned into mud.

"Ahh!" She shrieked, and fell on the ground. Unfortunately, she was standing on a very steep path itself, and she tumbled down the mountain. Gray's heart stopped beating as he watched his loved one slid across the mud, going further and further. The rain kept on going, clouding his vision.

"**CLAIRE**!!" Gray yelled out and jumped right after her. He tried to run, but instead he slipped himself, there was too much mud, and he was now gliding down the mountain. With horror in his eyes, he saw Claire had finally managed to grab onto a bush, and had now stopped on a very steep side of the mountain. The rain crashed around her, and it looked all foggy around her, he didn't know if she was injured or if she was okay.

"CLAIRE! ARE YOU OKAY!?" He yelled down at her, still sliding down the mountain and finally coming to a halt when he reached Claire's shaking body. He stumbled a little over her body, but steadied himself as he sat down and felt for her pulse. Good, her pulse was still going.

He lifted up her face; it was covered in mud. She slowly opened her eyes. "Ughh, dizzy," she mumbled and closed her eyes again.

"Claire, can you hear me?" He asked, this time more urgently. Claire's eyes remained closed, but she slowly nodded her head.

"Are you okay? Are you hurting anywhere? Do you remember who I am? What's 4 times 4? What's your birthday?"

"G-gray," said Claire. "I'm o-okay .. I think." She tried to get up, but fell down into Gray's arms when she noticed she was still too shaky to move at all. "Don't move," he ordered her. "I'm taking you to the clinic," he said and hauled her arm over his shoulder and pulled her up.

The trip to the clinic was not a pleasant one. The rain was so thick that Gray could barely see anything anymore, and Claire's body got heavier and heavier with each step he took. She tried to walk with him, to support her own weight, but for some reason she was totally uncoordinated, losing her own footing – something that Gray feared was brain damage. Claire needed to see the Doctor, and he had to get her there as soon as possible. He pulled her waist closer to his, while making sure her arms was securely over his shoulder.

After about maybe half an hour in the pouring ran, and Claire moaning slightly every time he dragged her feet over the pavement; Gray arrived at the clinic.

"TRENT! ELLI!!" Gray yelled out and pulled Claire over the steps. The door swung open, showing a confused man wearing a Doctor's coat.

"What happened!?" Asked the black-haired man and he took Claire off his arms. "Elli, come in here now, we've got someone who's hurt."

"We were climbing the mountain peak, she slipped and fell down a long way," said Gray fast as he looked at Claire being put away in the hospital bed. He could hear Claire mumbling some words that didn't make sense, and it worried Gray like nothing else had ever worried him before.

The Doctor pushed Gray away from the room. "You wait there, we'll work on her," he said urgently, and closed the door behind him.

Gray paced up and down the door, sometimes pressing his ear against it to see if he could hear anything from the room. It was futile though, Gray couldn't hear a thing and he was at the Doctor's mercy. It scared him, it scared him a lot. He was so worried Claire was going to have some brain damage or something, or worse; ever lasting damage! It was all his fault – he decided they should go up on the mountain peak. Then he continued to push Claire up the mountain when she just wanted to go home, but he didn't care, even when it started raining he didn't care.

Angrily, he hit his head against the hard, concrete wall. "Stupid, Gray. You're so stupid," he said to himself in anger.

After an hour or so, the door finally opened, revealing the nurse; Elli.

"You may come in now, but be careful. Claire needs rest, she has a slight concussion and needs not do any work for one whole week, otherwise it might be permanent," she explained Gray, but Gray was only half listening, as he looked at Claire laying on the bed. She was unconscious, her head laying to the side, and covered in a bandage wrapped around her head. Her blonde hair was wet and sprawled out on the pillow. She looked so .. lifeless.

"I'll let her stay in here for the night, she can go home tomorrow. I can not stress the fact enough that she needs to rest. No physical work from her – can you take care of her?" Asked Doctor Trent seriously.

Gray swallowed and nodded his head. Yes, he'll take care of Claire, forever. He stood next to Claire and bent down, holding her hand and kissing it. "I'll see you tomorrow Claire," he whispered to her.

--

It had been the most scariest day in his life, and Gray was glad that Claire seemed to be her old self again after a few days of resting. Of course Gray had to help her out with all of her farm work, and sometimes he could see her sneak out to try and water her crops – but Gray had taken away her watering can and put it somewhere where she couldn't find it. She said she didn't like it when she was so helpless and needed to get help with everything she did.

From taking care of her farm work, to having showers. Yes, Gray had to help her with her showers, something which he didn't mind anyway. He made sure that Claire laid in bed most of the day, and while she slept late at night, Gray would watch over her, to make sure everything was alright.

Gray turned around in his bed to see the same old hair he had seen ever since that time they had lived together. He still liked seeing it though. He put his arm over her waist and pulled her closer to him. He loved having her here, together with him, sharing her life with him. Gray closed his eyes as he got closer to her hair. He heard Claire stir a little and she opened her eyes.

"Gray," she mumbled softly. "Hm?" He responded, kissing her neck.

"You're poking me again.." Said Claire with a yawn. Gray grinned.

"I can't help it, it's morning, and I woke up next to a beautiful girl," he said and kissed her neck some more. "Liar," she snorted. "You always wake up with a boner."

Gray chuckled. "Doesn't mean I didn't wake up next to a beautiful girl." They both held their mouths and laid together in bed, peaceful and content with the way they were right now.

"I love you," murmured Gray against her neck. "I love you too," whispered Claire back as she drifted off into sleep again. Gray smiled at the memory he had when he had first confessed that he loved Claire.

--

It was Gray's birthday, the 6th of Winter. He was more excited than ever, all because he knew that Claire had said she has the best present ever. She had been planning it for a week already, and Gray just couldn't help but squeal in delight when he woke up on the morning of his birthday.

He shook Claire awake, who merely mumbled something like '5 more minutes'.

"It's my birthday!" Said Gray happily, and kissed Claire's lips.

Claire pushed him off of her. "Oh Goddess, morning breath, go brush your teeth," said Claire as she glared at her boyfriend. Gray snorted back at her. "You go brush your teeth, they're just as bad as mine."

"Just give me a sec while I try and fall asleep again," she whispered, putting her head back down on her pillow.

Gray pouted at her. "It's my birthdaayyy," he whined and kept shaking her body. She groaned out loud and rolled out of her bed ungracefully.

She stood up and straightened herself out while she stared at Gray, he seemed so blurry to her ..

"Happy Birthday, Gray," she said to him and disappeared in the bathroom to pee, and brush her teeth.

Gray pushed himself against the bathroom door, holding the doorknob and trying to turn it around. "I want my present!" Said Gray impatiently. There was no response from Claire, so Gray decided to be annoying. He put his nails on top of the wooden door and trailed them down, making a screeching sound that most people hated – including Claire.

"Gray, stop that!" She yelled at him from out the bathroom.

"Preseenntt!" Wailed Gray out loud, he wanted his present – now!

He heard Claire groan out of frustration at the impatient little puppy. "Just go sit on your bed, I'll give it to you in a second."

Gray did what he was told and sat on his bed. He wrapped himself in his blanket because he got kind of cold when he was _just _wearing his boxers. Claire always wore her long night gowns though, never just sleeping in her panties or something. Then again, if she did, Gray would probably never sleep again, and instead, would be staring at her until she woke up.

The doorknob turned and Claire walked out, still in her nightgown.

"Where's my present?" He asked, looking behind her back, but not finding anything that resembled a present. Claire sighed and went back into the bathroom to take out the old radio she still used. She walked over towards the bedroom and closed the door, then placed down the radio on the ground and pressed play. Music started playing from the speakers, it was a song that Gray actually recognized.

_I like big butts and I can not lie, you other brothers can't deny._

Claire started to dance to the song, in front of Gray. Gray roared out of laughter when he saw Claire shake her butt towards him. He stopped laughing when he saw that Claire was unbuttoning her nightgown. His mouth dropped open when the blonde girl shook her nightgown off of her body, as it gracefully fell to the ground. She was left in just her light-blue bra and her light-blue thong. Claire danced, wiggling her waist and shaking her butt again. Gray, was highly amused, and on the other hand, was highly aroused too. Claire made a whole turn to clap her hands and shake her booty again. Gray laughed at her.

"Dear goddess, I love you Claire." He had claimed suddenly, still happily watching Claire dancing half-naked to the song; Baby Got Back.

Claire stopped dancing and stared at Gray. His eyes widened at his own claims, but he realized that he might as well say it now. Claire slowly made her way over to the bed and sat down next to Gray.

"You love me?" She asked quietly. Gray blushed, and nodded. Claire smiled happily. "Good, because I love you too," she said before returning to her booty-dance again.

--

Gray quietly chuckled in himself as he felt Claire softly breathing against his body.

Love.

He loved Claire. He was in love with her. He loved everything about her, from her imperfections to her personality to the way she could gracefully turn any situation in an utter chaos. Claire was so right for him, and he loved every bit of her.

Of course, he had loved her ever since he could remember. The day when Kai said Claire might have a crush on him, he was overwhelmed by this feelings he couldn't quite explain. Now, after a while, Gray realized he had been in love with Claire all this time. That's why it didn't quite fit the description of having a simple crush on Claire, or just simply being her best friend. It was love, and he was too stupid to realize it. In a spontaneous act of happiness, had he finally called out that he loved her.

Loving her, he did.

He didn't ask to be loved in return, but it made him all the more happy when he heard Claire say those words back. They were together, and they were in love. Gray couldn't wish for something more fulfilling than that. From the moment that they got together, Gray's life had turned unexpectedly in every way. Those turns were good turns though, his life changed for the better. No longer was he grouchy mister Gray, now he was happy mister Gray who loved spending time with his girlfriend, and who loved working on his forging skills.

Being with Claire made him better as a person. He now could understand why his grandfather kept yelling at him for doing something wrong. He could finally open up to other people, and in the meantime he had become better friends with Cliff and Ann. The people skills that he was so lacking when he met Claire had now turned into actual social skills. Gray did now find it enjoyable to talk to other people, and he could make friends easier.

And it was all because of Claire.

Claire, who got underneath his skin from the day he met her. Claire, who changed the way he thought, changed the way he felt, changed the way he looked at life. She was the epiphany of his life, the bright sunshine in his cloudy world. It was all he needed, to stay with Claire. To enjoy being with her for the rest of his life. Gray never wanted to part from Claire, ever. She felt like his other half, and without her, his happy world would crumble down into nothingness. She was the only person who could truly make him happy, and he was the only person who could truly make her happy too (albeit, that were her own words).

Gray lifted himself up and leaned against the wall; staring at his beautiful girlfriend who was now drooling all over her own pillow. He had thought about this for a long time, and finally found the right time to do it. Gray had been wanting to ask Claire to marry him, because it was the only logical step to him, he couldn't bare the thought of her ever leaving him. He wanted her to stay his, forever. The only question was when and where.

Ann had offered him advice on how to propose. She had said that he should buy a blue feather from the market, and show it to Claire. Unfortunately, Claire had no clue what a Blue Feather represents, so that was out of the question. Ann then suggested that he should just propose like those guys did it in the movies.

"_You know, you buy a ring, get on one knee, and ask 'will you marry me?' and the like."_ Had Ann said.

Gray wasn't so sure about doing that, as he didn't know which knee to kneel down on, and what kind of ring he needed to buy. He was completely, and utterly hopeless – until one day he thought of an idea. A brilliant idea, he might add. Gray would forge his own engagement ring for Claire, as that would display more love than just buying one that was pre-made. For days on end, Gray spent his time at the blacksmith making his own ring. His grandfather allowed him to do as he wished, when Gray had told him about his plans to marry the blonde haired farmer.

When Gray was finally finished with his perfect ring, he had to find the right time to ask her.

It's not that Gray thought Claire wasn't ready to be asked this sort of question, is was more about the fact that Gray wanted to make Claire feel special; because she was special to him. If he was going to ask her to marry him, he damn well would make sure she would remember that day forever.

A few days passed as Gray tried to pick out the perfect date to ask Claire to marry him, and on that one special day, he realized it was the perfect date.

_The Starry Night festival._

Dubbed by all townsfolk as the most romantic festival of the year, Gray couldn't help but grin out of sheer arrogance at his own genius plans. He was going to propose to Claire on the Starry Night festival.

Gray shook Claire awake. "Hey, Claire, wake up," he said and shook her some more. Claire groaned and turned around. "But I was sleeping," she mumbled.

"Do you want to go to the Starry Night festival with me?" He asked.

"Noooo," said Claire sarcastically. "I think I'll go with Cliff or something – of course I'll go with you Gray."

Gray ruffled her hair with his hand and smiled at her. "You better go with me," he threatened sarcastically. The blonde girl slapped his hand away and rolled out off her bed. She scratched her ass, which to Gray wiggled his eyebrows at, and walked towards the kitchen.

"Want some cereal? Or do you feel like a sandwich?" Called out Claire from the kitchen. Gray quickly grabbed his shirt from off the ground and pulled it on. He then swung himself off the bed and skidded towards the kitchen where Claire was taking out breakfast stuff from the refrigerator.

"I feel like, kissing you," said Gray with a smile as he pulled Claire in an embrace and kissed her lips. She humbly kissed him back and then pulled away, saying something about morning breath.

Together, they ate breakfast in silence. When they were done, they got dressed, and got to work. Gray told Claire he would meet her at the beach at 6 PM, which was a rather strange time, but Claire agreed nonetheless. She then disappeared to tend to her livestock, while Gray went to the blacksmith; to pick up his ring.

He entered the familiar blacksmith and greeted his just-awake-grandfather.

"Mornin'," he said and tipped his cap towards his gramps. He went over to his usual table he worked at and pulled out a drawer, where his ring would be. When he opened it up though, there was no ring inside, only a hammer and some other tools.

"So, so, you've been working on this.._ ring_?" Said Saibara while he dragged his words to get Gray's attention. The blonde turned around and swallowed hard; his gramps was holding the engagement ring he made for Claire.

"Yes, can I have it back?" Said Gray in a low voice, as if he was making sure he wouldn't jump on his gramps to grab the ring out of his dirty clutches.

"Where'd you get this ore?" The old man asked, pointing at the blue stone that was attached to the silver ring. It was the ore he had found a few months ago, it was the day he and Claire became boyfriend and girlfriend. The blue ore still hadn't lost its light, as it was still omitting that same sparkle of light from the core.

"I got it in the mine, _now can I have it back_?" Said Gray more urgently, he didn't want his gramps to fuck up what he had been working on for weeks.

"It's a well-crafted ring, Gray. Good luck on your proposal," said Saibara and flicked the ring at Gray, who hastily caught it. Gray nodded at his grandfather and did his work for the rest of the day.

It was just so exciting, and he couldn't wait that long to propose to Claire. Gray smiled as he admired the 'well-crafted' ring. It was thin and small, fitting Claire's finger perfectly (he hoped). The pretty ore was embedded in the center, glowing this natural blue light. He could see Claire's eyes staring back at him and he smiled again. He pocketed the ring and returned to his work. After he was done, Gray returned to his old home; the inn. Where he spent the rest of his hours talking to Cliff and Ann, who were talking about their date going to the Starry Night festival. Of course, it made Gray all the more pumped up for his own plans.

"You're going to ask her tonight, right?" Said Ann as she beamed at Gray.

Gray shyly smiled at her and nodded. "Yeah, just don't tell her," he said.

Cliff looked uneasy to the side and shuffled in his place. Ann glared at Cliff, and Gray wondered what was going on.

"What's going on?" He asked, as he eyed Ann and Cliff.

"Nothing," said Ann quickly. "He's been acting weird ever since I asked him out for the Starry Night festival."

Cliff blushed and hid his face. "Am not!" He replied in a soft whimper. Gray snorted at Cliff's inaudible voice, hoping that his friend would one day find the comfortableness with Ann as he shared with Claire. Actually, Cliff could learn a lot from Claire. If you'd put them together in the same room for a day, you could bet on it that Cliff would never be the same person again – a person who wasn't so shy anymore.

Then again, he would never do that to poor Cliff, and he was way too jealous to ever let Claire stay with any guy in a room for the whole day, unless it was him of course.

"Well, it's getting late, I'll leave you two alone .. to your _date_," said Gray with a smirk. Cliff blushed again, and looked away from Ann and Gray, whilst Ann was only smiling at the blushing Cliff.

"Good luck, I hope she says yes!" Said Ann with a hidden snort. Gray thought nothing of it and left the inn. When Gray left, Ann smacked Cliff on the head. "You are so sucky at lying!" She said, obviously offended by something. Cliff mumbled a tiny sorry before he returned to blushing again.

Gray arrived at the beach, a little too early, only around 5 PM. He was going to spend the night with Claire, at the beach, gazing at the stars. Then when they were silent, and holding on to each other, Gray would get on one knee – wait he can't do that if they were holding on each other while sitting on the ground. All right, let's rephrase that; they would be standing together gazing at the stars, and he would get on one knee – but how can Claire see him bending down when she's staring at the stars?

The blonde sighed as he sat down at the pier, dangling his feet above the water. He took off his cap and placed it beside him; he knew Claire liked seeing his whole face. Gray waited, and waited until it was 6 PM, for his future fiancé to show up. It was cold, very cold actually, and Gray shuddered in the cold night. At least he had a jacket on, but that wasn't really helping him when he was sitting in cold weather for over an hour. How he longed to go back to his house where he could start a fire in the fireplace, and sit there staring at the crackling flames, along with Claire, sitting under one blanket with her. He made a mental note that he should do that, when he asked Claire to marry him of course.

There were some shuffling steps in the sand, not far ahead. Gray turned his head around as he got up from the pier and looked at Claire entering the beach. She was fully clothed in her winter coat, with scarf and mittens to match. Gray silently cursed in his head; if she's wearing mittens then he can't slip the ring on her finger! Claire came closer, and he could see that her cheeks were tinged with red; probably from the cold.

"Hi," she said weakly as she finally caught up to him. They were both standing on the pier, staring at each other. Gray grabbed her hand and pulled her closer to him. She smiled and leaned on her toes to reach Gray's face as she quickly kissed him on the lips. That kiss made him feel all warm inside again, even if her lips were as cold as his at the moment.

"Glad you could come," said Gray with a smile as he beckoned her to sit down at the pier.

"So tell me, why are we outside here in this freezing weather?" Asked Claire as she sat down and hugged her coat for warmth.

Gray raised his eyebrows; not really knowing why either. "I don't know – to stare at the stars?" He said and pointed towards the dark sky. Stars were shining through the clouds, and it actually was a pretty sight to behold. Gray sat down next to Claire, and mentally scolded himself for doing so; now he couldn't go on one knee.

Together they sat on the pier and gazed at the stars, leaning against each other bodies for warmth. Although, Gray wasn't really getting any warmer, as staying in the freezing cold for too long might actually become a problem. He sighed in himself, wondering when would be a good time to ask her. Would it be now? Or should he wait a few more minutes? Nervously, Gray reached into his pocket to touch the ring.

"Gray?" He heard Claire say. Gray whipped his head around, did she see anything!?

"What?" He panted out, feeling like he was just caught in the act.

Claire smiled at him and kissed his freezing cold lips. "I want to thank you for being with me – I love you," she said warmly, giving Gray shivers (or was it because he was cold?).

He smiled weakly. "I love you too." Now was the perfect moment to propose to her. He heard Claire move away from him, so Gray could finally get out his ring from his pocket.

It started to snow.

Claire turned around to look at him. "Look, it's snowing! About time, don't you think?" She asked, sticking out her tongue to catch the snow on her tongue. Gray mumbled out a 'yeah' and placed the ring in his hand, making sure Claire didn't see it.

Claire stood up and leaned a little over the pier, watching the snow fall and disappear in the ocean. Gray could have cried from happiness; now she was standing and he could kneel down! Gray tried to get up, but it seemed as if his butt was frozen on the pier. He gave one giant pull and shot loose from the pier. He sat on his knees as he looked at Claire.

"Gray I want to tell you something," said Claire as she turned around to look at him.

Gray was debating in his head which knee he had to lean on! Was it his right or left knee? Oh Goddess, why didn't he know such a simple thing? He nervously held the ring in his finger and shuddered in Claire's presence. She cocked her head to him, but turned around again. Gray's heart started thumping in his chest – which knee!? Gray moved around and decided to bent down on his left knee, and suddenly, while he was learning on the ground for support, the ring slid out off his hand.

"_Fuc-"_

"I never thought I would meet someone like you when I came here," said Claire before Gray could even finish his curse word.

He dropped the ring!

_He dropped the fucking ring!_

Gray hastily looked down at the ground for any sparkle of blue light, but the snow was covering it up too fast for him to see where the ring had fallen. His blue eyes scanned the pier that he was standing on, but he couldn't find the silver ring. Gray panicked and started brushing the snow off the pier with his hands.

"I don't want to be separated from you, Gray," continued Claire, unbeknownst that Gray was frantically searching for a ring behind her back.

Gray wasn't even paying attention to the blonde haired girl. He pushed the snow off again, and finally saw it; a faint shimmer of blue light. His heart sung out of happiness, as he tried to pick up the ring, but it was stuck between the wood of the pier. It had fallen directly in between two pieces of wood, and Gray couldn't keep himself from cursing many words in his mind.

"I really love you Gray. I don't want it any other way."

Gray's fingers tried to squeeze through the wood so he could reach the ring – but his fingers were too thick and he couldn't squirm in between the wood. The ring laid there, not far out of his reach, it was mocking him. Gray growled lowly and tried to pick up the ring with his pinky finger instead. He was freezing cold, and could barely feel his fingers anymore, but he had to get the ring! For Claire!

"That's why .." Said Claire as she slowly turned around, pulling her hands out of her pockets.

Gray's anxiety rose, as he looked at Claire's eyes wondering down to the pier, to see what he was doing. His pinky barely touched the ring, and before he knew it, he had a grip on it.

"**Ha**!" Cried out Gray as he lifted the ring from the pier and clasped it in his hands. He showed it to Claire, sitting on one knee, in the freezing snow.

Claire was standing in front of him, with her hands pulled out, showing a blue feather in her mittens.

Gray blinked.

Claire blinked.

They both blinked again.

Gray's eyes stared at the blue feather in Claire's hands, while Claire stared at the ring in Gray's hands.

The blonde haired girl threw the feather away, bent down to her knees, and flung her arms around Gray, who happily held her in his arms, while making sure he didn't lose the ring again. He heard her laugh quietly against his back, while he nuzzled his face in her warm hair.

"You asshole," she chuckled. "You ruined my proposal."

Gray snickered, and held Claire closer to his body. "Says the one who ruined my proposal – I even made a nice ring for you!"

Claire pulled away from Gray as she stared in his eyes. She smiled. "Yes, I'll marry you, Gray."

Gray smiled back.

"I'll marry you too."

He took Claire's hand and pulled off her mitten. Her fingers extended while he placed the silver ring on her ring finger. The blonde girl smiled at him and kissed him on his lips. Gray eagerly kissed her back – his fiancé ..

His wife.


End file.
